
Class. 



Book. 



i 




<Z 



</ 




HISTORY 



OF THE 



HOUSE OF AUSTRIA, 

PROM THE 

ACCESSION OF FRANCIS I. 

TO THE 

REVOLUTION OF 1848. 

IN CONTINUATION OF THE HISTORY WRITTEN BY 

ARCHDEACON COXE. 

c 



TO WHICH IS ADDED 



GENESIS; 



DETAILS OF THE LATE AUSTRIAN REVOLUTION. 
By AN OFFICER OF STATE. 

GTransIateJ from t^t ©errnan. 



LONDON: 
HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 

1853. 



IB 3 8 



r 



.\j%i 



PRINTED BY 
COX (brothers) AND WVMAN, GREAT QUEEN STREET, 

lincoln's-inn fields. 






PREFACE. 

The work which forms the greater part of this volume is 
in some respects a thing unique in literature. Its author, 
Count Hartig, a Conservative Austrian statesman, honoured 
by the confidence of his sovereign, professes to expound the 
causes of the revolution which lately shook the empire to its 
foundations. In so doing, he criticises the course of the 
Imperial administration with a freedom unexampled by any 
public writer of his class and country ; for, except during the 
chaotic times of 1848 and 1849, it has always been a rule 
with the Austrian Government to discountenance all com- 
ments on its own proceedings, whether on the part of 
friends or opponents. The work thus singularly charae- 
^ized is executed with great ability, and must always be 
l ued by the political inquirer as an authoritative expo- 
on of the momentous crisis to which it relates, as seen 
a. an Austrian point of view. It produced an extraor- 
*.ry excitement when first published, and went through 
:ral editions with great rapidity. 

he work has been translated in compliance with the 
advice and desire of a most distinguished personage, and is 
presented as a valuable appendix to Coxe's " History of 
the House of Austria," already published in the Standard 
Library. Prefixed is an original epitome of the history 
of the empire, embracing the period from the accession 
of the Emperor Francis I. to the close of the war in Hun- 
gary, in 1849. In the compilation of this portion of the 
volume reference has been made to the best and most recent 
authorities, both English and foreign. 

Walter K. Kelly. 



CONTENTS. 



EPITOME OF THE HISTOEY OF AUSTRIA, 

From the Accession of Francis I. to the Close of the Revolution of 1848-9. 

Chaptek 1. — First War with France, 1792-1797 . . Page xiii 

Feeble Invasion of the Netherlands by the French. . . . ib. 

Battles of Valmy and Jemappes . . . . . . . . xiv 

First General Coalition against France . . . . . . xv 

Seizure of Conde and Valenciennes . . . . . . . . xvi 

Retreat of the Austrians. Defection of the Prussians . . xvii 

Campaign of 1794. Partition of Poland .. .. .. xviii 

Campaign of 1795 .. .. . , .. .. .. xxi 

Campaign of 1796 .. .. .. .. .. .. xxii 

Peace of Campo Formio . . . . . . . . . . xxv 

Fall of Venice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxvi 

Chapter II. — Second War with France, 1798-1804 . . . . xxvii 

Murder of French Envoys at Rastadt . . . . . . ib. 

Coalition of Austria, Russia, and England . . . . . . xxviii 

Campaign of the Alps . . . . . . . . . . . . xxix 

New Strategy of the Allies . . . . . . . . . . ib. 

Recall of the Russian Forces . . . . . . . . . . xxx 

Battle of Marengo . . . . .. .. . . .. xxxi 

Battle of Hohenlinden. . . . . . . . . . . . xxxii 

Peace of Luneville . . . . . . . . . . . . ib. 

The Title of " Emperor of Austria" assumed . . . . xxxv 

Chapter III. — First War with the French Empire, 1805-6 . . ib. 

Surrender of General Mack . . . . . . . . . . xxxvi 

The Tyrol taken .. .. .. .. .. .. xxxvii 

Napoleon marches upon Vienna . . . . . . . . xxxviii 

Battle of Austerlitz. Peace of Presburg . . . . . . ib. 

Dissolution of the German Empire . . . . . . . . xl 

Chapter IV. — Second War with the French Empire . . . . xli 

The Austrians Five Times defeated by Napoleon . . . . xlii 

Napoleon defeated at Aspern. . . . . . . . . . xliii 

Battle of Wagram . . . . . . . . . . . . xliv 

Peace of Vienna . . . . . . . . . . . . xlv 

Chapter V. — From the Peace of Vienna to the Fall of Napo 

leon, 1810-1815 

Marriage of Napoleon and Maria Louisa 

Austria enters into a Conditional Alliance against Napoleon 

Battle of Dresden 

Battle of Leipsic 

Invasion of France 

Abdication of Napoleon 

His Return from Elba and Final Relegation to St. Helena 

Share of Austria in the New Partition of Europe 

Chapter VI. — From the Congress of Vienna, 1815, to the Revo 
lutionof!848 



xlvi 

ib. 

xlviii 

xlix 

1 

ib. 

liii 

liv 

ib. 

lv 



CONTENTS. 



XI 



Affairs of Naples, Spain, and Greece 

Death of Francis and Accession of Ferdinand 

Insurrection of Galicia 

Incorporation of Cracow with Austria 

Affairs of Italy 
Chapter YII. — Revolution of 1848, from March to September 

Bombardment of Prague 

New Constitution of Hungary 

Duplicity of the Imperial Government 
Chapter VIII. — Lombardo- Venetian War, 1848-9 

The Austrians driven out of Milan . . 
,, ,, Venice 

Charles Albert attacks Radetzki- 

Battle of Somma Campagna 

Radetzki enters Milan. . 

Campaign of Novaro 

Siege of Venice 

Venice capitulates 
Chapter IX. — Revolt and Bombardment of Vienna. Abdica 
tion of the Emperor Ferdinand 

Battle of Schwechat 

Rights of Hungary 
Chapter X. — Second Invasion of Hungary 

Its Rapid Success 

Its Subsequent Total Defeat 

Hungarian Declaration of Independence 

Siege and Storming of Buda 
Chapter XI. — Third Invasion of Hungary 

Gbrgei's Insubordination 

His Retreat across the Carpathians 

Battle of Temesvar 

Surrender of Vilagos 

Capitulation of Komorn 

Atrocious Acts of Vengeance. . 

Present Condition of Austria 



lviii 

lx 

lxii 

lxiii 

ib. 

lxvii 

lxix 

lxx 

lxxii 

lxxiii 

lxxvii 

lxxix 

lxxxii 

lxxxiv 

Ixxxv 

ib. 

lxxvvii 

xc 

ib. 

xcvii 

cii 

civ 

cv 

cxiii 

cxvi 

cxix 

ib. 

cxx 

cxxii 

cxxiii 

cxxiv 

cxxv 

cxxvi 

cxxvii 



GENESIS OF THE REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 


Author's Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . Page cxxxi 


Preface to the Third Edition 




. . cxxxiv 


Chapter I. — Introduction 






1 


Chapter II.— Before March, 1848 






8 


The Emperor Francis 






ib. 


The Emperor Ferdinand 






17 


Austrian Government Machinery 






19 


System of Government 






37 


Commotions previous to March, 1848 






59 


„ in Galicia 






61 


„ Austrian Italy . . 






62 


„ Hungary.. 






69 


„ Transylvania 






78 



Xll CONTENTS. 

Commotions in Bohemia 

,, Lower Austria 
Chapter III. — The Early Part of the month of March, 1848 . . 

Revolutionary Movements in Western Europe 

Address of the Lower Austrian Trades Union 

Petitions for Reform 

Popular Movements in Prague 

The Hungarian Parliament 

Prince Metternich on the Eve of the Revolution 
Chapter I V.— Events of the 13th, 14th, and 15th of March, 

1848, in Vienna 

Chapter V. — Second Half of the month of March, 1848 

In Vienna 

In Hungary 

In Bohemia 

In Dalmatia, Croatia, and Sclavonia. . 

In Austrian Italy 
Chapter VI. — From March, 1848, to the Opening of the Con- 
stituent Diet at Vienna 

Proceedings in Vienna 

Flight of the Emperor to Innspruck. . 

Bombardment of Prague 

Election of the Constituent Diet 

Archduke John assumes the Viceroyalty 

Affairs of Hungary 
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Appendix . . . . 

Imperial Decree of March 15, 1848 

Ministerial Proclamation of May 26 and 27, 1848 . . 

Imperial Announcement, Innspruck, May 20, May 21, and 
June 3, 1848 

Ministerial Proclamation declaring the Provisional Govern- 
ment of Prague to be illegal 

Imperial. Proclamation, Innspruck, June 16, 1848. . 

Proclamation by the Archduke John 

Viceregal Speech on Opening the Diet of the Empire 

Address of the Vienna Committee of Safety to the Diet . . 

Answer of the Hungarian Ministry to the Estates of Tran- 
sylvania 

Speech from the Throne on Opening the Hungarian Par- 
liament 



INVESTIGATION INTO THE MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 

Preface 334 

First Section. — Events in the War Office on the 6th of Octo- 
ber, 1848 335 

Second Section. — Direct Agents convicted of the Crime . . 369 
Third Section. — The Assassination : its Originators and Pro- 
moters .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 416 



EPITOME OF THE HISTORY OF AUSTRIA, 

From the Accession of Francis II. to the Close of the Revolution 
of 1848-9. 



CHAPTER I. 

The First War with France. 1792-1797. 

A few days after his accession to the throne, the Em- 
peror Francis received the reply of France to the note 
addressed to that power by the Emperor Leopold shortly 
before his death. Some further negotiations and mutual 
recriminations ensued; and the ultimatum of Austria was, 
that the monarchy should be re-established on the footing 
on which it had been placed by the royal ordinance of June, 
1789; that the property of the Church in Alsace should be 
restored ; the fiefs of that province, with the seignorial rights, 
given back to the German princes, and Avignon with the 
Yenaisin to the Pope. These propositions were rejected; 
and on the 20th of April the unfortunate Louis XYI. took 
the fatal step to which he was urged alike* by his friends, his 
ministers, and his enemies. He repaired to the National 
Assembly, and with a tremulous voice proposed that war 
should be declared against the King of Hungary and Bo- 
hemia, The proposal was almost unanimously adopted, 
many of the most enlightened members of the Assembly 
voting for it even against their own convictions. 

Hostilities began on the 28th of April with an attempted 
invasion of Flanders, in which the French were ignomi- 
niously routed at every point, their undisciplined troops 
flying at the first discharge, or even before a shot was fired. 
Had the Austrian forces in Flanders been more efficiently 
commanded, they might have marched with, ease to Paris, 
and terminated the war in the first campaign. As it was,. 

6 



XIV HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

the extreme facility with which they had repelled the in- 
vaders had the injurious effect of inspiring the Austrians and 
their allies with an overweening contempt for their oppo- 
nents, — a thing which is always dangerous in war. 

Meanwhile the Austrian and Prussian forces were slowly 
assembling on the frontier, and on the 20th of June the 
duke of Brunswick, the commander-in-chief, established his 
head-quarters at Coblentz. The king of Prussia joined the 
army on the 25th of July, and on that day the duke of 
Brunswick reluctantly issued what he justly termed u that 
deplorable manifesto," in which he was made to declare, 
among other things, his intention to level Paris with the 
ground, should the French refuse to submit to the authority 
of their sovereign. Instead of being terror-struck by this 
manifesto, the French were only maddened with rage ; they 
deposed and imprisoned their king, and flew to arms for the 
defence of their territory. Crossing the French frontier on 
the 30th of July, the allied army advanced with a slowness 
and circumspection strangely inconsistent with the tenour of 
the manifesto, and with their professed certainty of conquest. 
At last the fortress of Longwy was invested ; it capitulated 
on the 2 3rd of August ; after another unaccountable delay, siege 
was laid to Verdun, which surrendered on the 2nd of Septem- 
ber, and there now remained no fortified place in a state of 
defence on the road to Paris, nor an army capable of offering 
even a momentary resistance. The French were without a 
commander, General Lafayette having been compelled to seek 
refuge from the "violence of his own soldiers within the Aus- 
trian lines; and Dumourier, his successor, had only 25,000 
men to oppose to more than four times as many invaders. 
But he out-manoeuvred the duke of Brunswick in the field, 
and made him the dupe of secret negotiations, having for 
their ostensible object the recognition of the constitutional 
throne by the French general, and the junction of his army 
with the invading force. In this way Dumourier gained time 
to collect considerable reinforcements, and to unite his forces 
to those of Kellermann from Metz. The two armies came 
within sight of each other at Yalmy; the king gave orders 
for battle, and the Prussians were in the act of advancing 
against the heights occupied by Kellermann, when the duke 



SUCCESSES OF THE FRENCH IN 1792. XV 

suddenly gave orders to halt. A vigorous cannonade on 
botli sides terminated the affair, and the superb columns of 
the Prussians were drawn off at night without firing a shot. 
This drawn battle produced upon the invaders the effects of 
a disastrous defeat ; for the French it was the inauguration 
of that career of victory which carried their armies to Vienna 
and the Kremlin. Negotiations now proceeded with in- 
creased spirit ; and the result was, that in the end of October 
the allies evacuated France, abandoning the fortresses 
they had won, and having lost more than a fourth of their 
numbers by dysentery and fever, without any considerable 
fighting. 

Meanwhile other operations had been going on in Alsace 
and the Netherlands. The French were routed near Braille 
with great loss by Archduke Albert, who then laid siege to 
Lisle and bombarded it. But the retreat of the Prussians 
enabled Dumourier to fall with his whole force upon the 
archduke, whom he defeated at Jemappes (Nov. 6), and the 
whole of the Netherlands fell into the hands of the Jacobins. 
Another French army under General Custine, on the Upper 
Rhine, took possession of Mayence, the key to the western 
provinces of the empire (Oct. 21). 

Such was the disastrous result of the first campaign. On 
the very day of the cannonade at Yalmy, the republic was 
proclaimed and royalty abolished in France. The victory of 
Jemappes was immediately followed by a decree of the Con- 
vention, " promising fraternity and succour to every people 
who were disposed to recover their liberty ;" and this by 
another, declaring that the French nation would " treat as 
enemies the people who, refusing or renouncing liberty and 
equlitay, are desirous of preserving their prince and privileged 
castes, or of entering into an accommodation with them." 
Lastly, the revolution attained its climax by the execution 
of Louis XVI. on the 21st of January, 1793. 

The first great coalition against France was now formed , 
with England at its head ; whilst at the same time the land 
was rent by civil war, both la Vendee and a large portion of 
the south of France, including the great city of Lyons, having 
risen in support of the royal family. The English attacked 
France by sea, and made a simultaneous descent on the 

b2 



Xvi HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

northern and southern coasts. The Spanish and Portuguese 
troops crossed the Pyrenees ; the Italian princes invaded the 
Alpine boundary ; Austria, Prussia, Holland, and the German 
empire threatened the Rhenish frontier ; whilst Sweden and 
Russia stood frowning in the back-ground. In Sardinia the 
arms of the republic were engaged in aggressive hostilities. 
The whole of Christian Europe was combined in arms against 
France. 

The Austrian army in the Netherlands was commanded by 
Prince Coburg, and that on the Upper Rhine by Count 
Wurmser. The duke of Brunswick commanded the Prus- 
sians ; and the duke of York besieged Dunkirk with an 
army of 37,000 English, Hanoverians, Hessians, and Aus- 
trians. Dumourier, who was disgusted with the rule of the 
Jacobins, and openly avowed his intention of overthrowing 
the Convention, suffered himself to be defeated at Alden- 
hoven and Neerwinden, and the French were obliged to 
abandon all their conquests in Flanders. Finally, Dumourier 
deserted to the Austrians. Valenciennes and Conde were 
besieged and taken possession of (July 13) in the name of 
the emperor of Austria, as acquisitions to be permanently 
retained by the conqueror. This act was in accordance with a 
resolution adopted at Antwerp by a congress of the ministers 
of the allied powers, by which the object of the war was 
totally altered. On the 5th of April, Coburg issued a 
proclamation, wherein he said : — " I declare that our only 
object is to restore to France its constitutional monarch, 
with the means of rectifying such experienced abuses as may 

exist I declare, on my word of honour, that I enter 

on the French territory without any intention of making 
conquests, but solely and entirely for the above-mentioned 
purposes. I declare also, on my word of honour, that if 
military operations should lead to any place of strength 
being placed in my hands, I shall regard it in no other light 
than as a sacred deposit" &c. After the Congress of 
Antwerp, Coburg issued another proclamation, revoking 
the former one, and announcing that he should prosecute 
the war with the utmost vigour — that is to say, as a war of 
aggrandisement. "No step in the early stages of the war was 
ever attended with more unfortunate consequences. It 



SUCCESSES OF THE FREXCH IN 1793. X\ii 

sowed divisions among the allies as inuch as it united its 
enemies. From the moment Prussia saw her rival's power 
augmented by such an acquisition as Conde and Valenciennes, 
she secretly resolved to paralyse all further operations of 
her arms, and to withdraw, as soon as decency would permit 
her, from a contest, in which success seemed more to be 
dreaded than defeat. The Convention, on the other hand, 
turning to the best account this announcement of intended 
conquest, succeeded in inspiring a degree of unanimity in 
defence of their country, which they never could have effected 
had the allies confined themselves to the original objects of 
the war. 

The French army under Custine, which had shut itself up 
within the camp of Caesar, was attacked and driven from its 
trenches (August 8) with so much ease, that the rout could 
hardly be called a battle. So precipitate was the flight of 
the French, that, as at the Battle of the Spurs three centuries 
before, hardly a shot was fired or a stroke given before the 
whole army was dissolved. The allies, in great force, were 
now grouped within one hundred and sixty miles of the dis- 
mayed capital of France ; fifteen days would have brought 
them, without impediment, to its gates. But instead of im- 
proving their advantages, the Austrians temporised, as the 
Prussians had done in the former campaign, and allowed the 
French to rally and act on the offensive. Hou chard defeated 
the English at Hondscoten on the 8th of September, and 
raised the siege of Dunkirk ; and Jourdan drove the Aus- 
trians off the field at Wattigny the day on which the French 
queen was beheaded. Although the Austrians had main- 
tained their ground on every other point, Coburg resolved 
to make a general retreat, notwithstanding the urgent re- 
monstrances of the youthful Archduke Charles, who had 
greatly distinguished himself in the campaign. 

Mayence was retaken by the Prussians (July 22), after 
a siege of four months. The Austrians under Wurmser 
stormed the lines of Weissenburg, and advanced to Hagenau. 
The duke of Brunswick defeated the French general Hoche at 
Kaiserslautern. But the army of the Bhine under Pichegru, 
and the army of the Moselle under Hoche, now effected a 
junction, and the Prussians and Austrians were signally 



XV111 HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

defeated at Worth and Froschweiler, and compelled to 
retreat across the Rhine, the left bank of which was thus 
lost to Germany. The duke of Brunswick resigned the 
command of the army to Mollendorf, who fought one suc- 
cessful battle with the French at Kaiserslautern (May % 5th, 
1794), but thenceforth remained inactive. The Prussians 
and the Estates of the Empire were tired of the war, and 
left Austria to bear the burden of it alone. 

The war declared by France against Sardinia had resulted 
in leaving the French masters of Nice at the close of the 
year 1792. In the following year, hostilities were resumed 
between the Piedmontese army, reinforced by 10,000 Aus- 
trians, and the republicans, but no decisive battle was fought. 
The insurrection of Lyons afforded the Piedmontese a golden 
opportunity of establishing themselves in the south of France, 
but they neglected it, and the campaign terminated, after an 
ephemeral success, in their ultimate disgrace. 

The emperor Francis visited the Netherlands in person in 
the spring of 1794, with the intention of marching straight- 
way on Paris. But this was now become impracticable since 
the defection of the Prussians. The French remarked on 
this occasion : " The allies are ever an idea, a year, and an 
army behind-hand." The Austrians, nevertheless, attacked 
the whole French line in March, and were at first victorious 
on every side ; at Catillon, where Kray and Wernek distin- 
guished themselves, and at Landrecis, where the Archduke 
Charles made a brilliant charge at the head of the cavalry. 
Landrecis was taken, but this was all. Clairfait, being left 
unsupported by the British, was attacked singly at Kortryk 
by Pichegru, and forced to yield to superior numbers. Coburg 
fought an extremely bloody but undecisive battle of eighteen 
hours' duration at Tournay, where Pichegru ever opposed 
fresh masses to the Austrian artillery. 20,000 dead strewed 
the field. The emperor, discouraged by the coldness displayed 
by the Dutch, whom he had expected to see rise en masse in 
his cause, returned to Vienna. The Austrian troops were now 
greatly dispirited ; and on the 26th of June, Prince Coburg 
was defeated at Fleurus by General Jourdan ; and the duke 
of York soon afterwards at Breda by Pichegru. All Flanders 
was now in the hands of the French ; and Pichegru, pur- 



THE FIKST COALITION DISSOLVED. XIX 

suing his victorious career, invaded Holland, which., before 
the close of the year, was transformed into a Batavian 
republic. In this year, also, the republicans carried Mount 
Cenis, and before the end of May were masters of all the 
passes of the Maritime Alps. During this period the horrors 
of the French Revolution were at their height ; but "the iron 
rule of terror undoubtedly drew out of the agonies of the 
state the means of its ultimate deliverance." 

Upon the fall of Robespierre in July, 1794, the king of 
Prussia suddenly abandoned the monarchical cause, and 
negotiated a separate peace with the Directory, which was 
concluded at Basle on the oth of April, 1795. By a secret 
article of this treaty, Prussia confirmed the French republic 
in possession of the whole of the left bank of the Rhine, be- 
ing herself amply indemnified in return at the expense of 
the petty German States. Hanover and Hesse Cassel parti- 
cipated in the treaty, and were included within, the line of 
demarcation, which France bound herself not to transgress. 
The countries lying beyond that line, the Netherlands, 
Holland, and Pfalz Juliers, were abandoned to her ; and 
Austria, kept in check on the Upper Rhine, was powerless in 
their defence. Spain and Portugal also seceded from the 
coalition, and made peace with the French republic. 

To the lukewarmness of Prussia in. the contest with 
France, more than to any other cause, is to be ascribed the 
extraordinary success which for some years attended the 
republican arms. The Berlin, cabinet impatiently desired 
to withdraw its army from the seat of war in the west, in 
order to accomplish its arrangements with the Empress 
Catherine for the partition of Poland. At a later period, 
Austria, too, became an accomplice in that most iniquitous 
act ; and already, as we have seen, she had set her allies an 
example of that rapacious policy, which was the immediate 
and fatal cause of their disunion. 

Prussia and Russia took upon themselves alone to execute 
the second dismemberment in Poland, and in October, 1793, 
the combined troops were, in the first instance, quietly can- 
toned in the provinces they had seized. On the 3rd of March, 
in the following year, Kosciusko closed the gates of Cracow, 
and proclaimed the insurrection. The struggle lasted until 



XX HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

the 4th ot October, when Kosciusko was defeated and taken 
prisoner at Maccowice, in a battle which decided the fate of 
Poland. After the fall of the hero, who sustained in his 
single person the fortunes of the republic, nothing but a 
series of disasters overtook the Poles. The Austrians, 
taking advantage of the general confusion, entered Gallicia, 
and occupied the palatinates of Lublin and Sandomier. On 
the 4th of November, Praga and Warsaw were stormed by 
Suwarroff, and an atrocious massacre of the inhabitants 
was committed, which Bussia expiated in the conflagration 
of Moscow. Besides ten thousand Polish soldiers killed in 
fight, above twelve thousand citizens of every age and sex 
were put to the sword. 

" The partition of Poland, and the scandalous conduct of 
the states who reaped the fruit of injustice in its fall, have 
been the frequent subject of just indignation and eloquent 
complaint from the European historians \ but the connection 
between that calamitous event and the subsequent disasters 
of the partitioning powers has not hitherto met with due 
attention. Yet nothing can be clearer than that it was this 
iniquitous measure which brought all the misfortunes that 
followed upon the European monarchies ; that it was this 
which opened the gates of Germany to French ambition, and 
brought Napoleon with his terrible legions to Vienna, 
Berlin, and the Kremlin. The more the campaigns of 1793 
and 1794 are studied, the more clearly does it appear that 
it was the prospect of obtaining a share in the partition of 
Poland which paralysed the allied arms, which intercepted 
and turned aside the legions, which might have overthrown 
the Jacobin rule, and created that jealousy and division 
among their rulers, which, more even than the energy of the 
republicans, contributed to their uniform and astonishing 
success. Had the redoubtable bands of Catherine been 
added to the armies of Prussia on the plains of Champagne 
in 1792, or to those of Austria and England in the fields of 
Flanders in 1793, not a doubt can remain but that the 
revolutionary party would have been overcome, and a con- 
stitutional monarchy established in France, with the entire 
concurrence of three-fourths of all the respectable classes in 
the kingdom, and to the infinite present and future blessing 



campaign of 1794. xxi 

of the whole inhabitants. Even in 1794, by a cordial 
co-operation of the Prussian and Austrian forces after the 
fall oY Landrecis, the whole barrier erected by the genius of 
Yauban might have been captured, and the revolution, 
thrown back upon its own resources, been permanently pre- 
vented from proving dangerous to the liberties of Europe, 
What then paralysed the allied armies in the midst of such 
a career of success, and caused the campaign to close under 
circumstances of such general disaster ? The prospect of par- 
titioning Poland, which first retained the Prussian battalions, 
during the crisis of the campaign, in sullen inactivity on the 
Bhine, and then led to the precipitate and indignant 
abandonment of Flanders by the Austrian forces."* 

The operations of the allies on the Piedmontese frontier 
were prosecuted with great vigour in 1795, and at first with 
signal successs, the. French being driven from all their 
positions in the Maritime Alps. But the campaign ended 
with the great and decisive victory of Loano, gained by 
Massena over the Austrians on the 23rd of November. 

In the campaign of this year, Mannheim fell by treachery 
into the hands of the French. Wurmser arrived too late for 
its relief, but he routed the French forces before it, and took 
General Oudinot prisoner. Clairfait at the same time, by an 
able manoeuvre, fell unexpectedly on the French force, be- 
sieging Mayence, defeated it and raised the siege. Pichegru, 
who had been called from Holland to take the command of 
the Upper Rhine, was driven back to the Yosges. Jourdan 
advanced to his aid from the Lower Bhine, but his van-guard, 
under Moreau, was defeated at Kreuznach and again at 
Meissenheim. Mannheim also capitulated to the Austrians. 
The winter was now far advanced, and both sides willingly 
concluded an armistice, which all the lesser princes of the 
empire would gladly have seen converted into a permanent 
peace ; but Austria remained unshaken, and intrepidly pre- 
pared for the mighty contest of 1796, being encouraged in 
her resolution by England, and aided by her with a subsidy 
of six millions sterling. 

The seats of war in 1796 were Germany and Italy. The 

* Alison, History of Europe. 



XX11 HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

Austrian forces were commanded in the former "by the Arch- 
duke Charles, in the latter by General Beaulieu. The French 
commanders were Jourdan on the Lower Rhine, Moreau on 
the Upper Rhine, and Bonaparte in Italy. 

Bonaparte was the first to take the field. The Austrian 
commander had incautiously extended his line3 too far, in 
order to preserve a communication with the English fleet in 
the Mediterranean. Bonaparte broke them, defeated the 
Austriaus at Montenotte, Millesimo, and Dego, between the 
10th and 15th of April; then turning sharply upon the 
equally attenuated lines of the Piedmont ese, he beat them in 
several engagements, the chief of which took place at Mon- 
dovi, between the 19th and 22nd of April. The court of 
Turin was panic stricken, and immediately submitted to a dis- 
advantageous peace, which was of more service to the French 
general than many victories. 

Having now secured his rear by the treaty with Sardinia, 
Bonaparte lost no time in pursuing the discomfited remains 
of Beaulieu's army, which had retired behind the Po in the 
hope of covering the Milanese territory. He defeated them 
at Pombio on the 7th and 8th of May ; then advancing to- 
wards Milan, he effected, on the 10th of May, what he him- 
self, so familiar with carnage, ever afterwards styled " the 
terrible passage of the bridge of Lodi," and, on the loth, he 
made his triumphal entry into the capital of Lombardy. 
Beaulieu threw twenty battalions of his best troops into 
Mantua, took up a defensive position along the line of the 
Mincio ; but being driven thence with loss, retired into the 
Tyrol. The French laid siege to Mantua, the bulwark of 
Austrian Italy. Wurmser was despatched from the 
Rhine with 30,000 Austrians for its relief ; but instead of 
advancing with his whole force, he divided it into two columns, 
which marched by different routes. They were beaten 
by Bonaparte in detail. Quasdanowich, Wurmser s second 
in command, was compelled to fall back towards the moun- 
tains. He himself entered Mantua on the 1st of August, 
the French having suddenly raised the siege ; and everything 
seemed to promise him an easy victory over the retiring re- 
mains of the enemy. Nevertheless, he sustained a double defeat 
at Lonato and Castiglione (Aug. 3rd), and being again beaten 



campaigns OF 1796. xxiii 

at Medola (Aug. 5th), was forced to seek shelter in the 
Tyrol. Having there received reinforcements, he again ad- 
vanced in divided columns, one of which, led by Davidovich, 
was defeated at Rover do, and the other, under Wurmser 
himself, near Bassano. Escaping thence with 16,000 men, he 
shut himself up in Mantua. Meanwhile the Austrians were 
collecting another army of 40,000 men under Alvinzi, whilst 
the corps of Davidovich was raised to 18,000. Bonaparte's 
forces amounted, altogether, to but 42,000 men, 12,000 of 
whom, under Yaubois, were defeated on the Lavis (Nov. 1st), 
with the loss of one-third of their number. Bonaparte's 
position was now become perilous ; he himself was defeated 
(Nov. 11th) at Caldiero, and finding that position too strong 
to be carried by an attack in front, he resolved to assail it in 
flank by the village of Areola. Two desperate actions were 
fought there on the 15th and 17th of November, in the 
second of which Alvinzi was defeated. He retired to Yicenza ; 
Davidovich, also, was forced to retreat to the Tyrol, and 
Mantua was reduced to the last extremity from want of 
provisions. Alvinzi, again reinforced, returned to its aid, 
but suffered a fearful defeat at Bivoli, on the 14th of 
January, 1797 ; and another Austrian force, under Provera, 
was compelled to lay down its arms. Mantua capitulated on 
the 28th of January, and the French were undisputed mas- 
ters of Italy. 

The campaign of 1796 in Germany was not begun until 
the end of May. The consequences of this delay were fatal 
to the plans of the Austrians. The French, under Jourdan, 
crossed the Lower Bhine, and gained some successes ; but 
were attacked by the Archduke Charles on the 16th of 
June, and forced to cross back again. Just then Moreau 
effected his passage over the Upper Bhine at Strasburg, and 
beating the Austrians in several partial engagements, reduced 
the whole Swabian circle to submission. Jourdan, also, again 
pushed forward and took Frankfort by bombardment. The 
archduke, too weak, singly, to encounter the armies of Jour- 
dan and Moreau, sent Wartensleben against the former, and 
meanwhile drew Moreau after him into Bavaria, where, 
leaving General Latour with a small corps to keep him in 
check at Bain on the Lech, he recrossed the Danube at 



XXIV HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

Ingolstadt with the flower of his army, and hastily advanced 
against Jourdan, who was thus taken unawares. At Tei- 
ningen he surprised and drove back the advanced guard of 
the French under Bernadotte. He defeated Jourdan with 
great loss at Amberg on the 24th of August, and again at 
Wurtzburg on the 3rd of September, in a battle which 
determined the fate of the campaign. The French made a 
disastrous retreat ; and the exasperated peasants rose en 
onasse, and hunted down the fugitives. 

Meanwhile Moreau, instead of hastening to Jourdan's aid, 
had continued his advance into Bavaria, This was just what 
the archduke desired. " Let Moreau advance to Vienna/' 
said he on parting with Latour ; " it is of no moment, pro- 
vided I beat Jourdan." This resolute conduct of the Aus- 
trian commander had the desired effect. Moreau was forced 
to make a retreat, which he executed with consummate skill 
and firmness. Defeating Latour at Biberach, he led the 
main body of his army in safety through the deep, narrow 
gorges of the Hollenthal in the Black Forest, and, after 
maintaining a final struggle with the archduke at Emmen- 
dingen, he effected a passage across the Rhine on the 20th 
of October, and thus accomplished his memorable retreat 
with comparatively little loss. The taking of Kehl by the 
imperialists on the 9th of January, 1797, and of the tete 
de pont of Hiiningen on the 1st of February, were the crown- 
ing events of this remarkable campaign. 

The archduke was now recalled from the Rhine to take 
the command in Italy. Immense efforts were made to sup- 
ply the losses which the imperial forces had sustained ; it 
therefore became Bonaparte's policy to anticipate the arrival 
of the new levies, and, on the 10th of March, all the columns 
of his army were in motion, across the Alps towards Vienna. 
Hoche, at the same time, attacked the Lower, and Moreau 
the Upper Rhine. On the 16th, the French crossed the 
Tagliamento in face of the imperialists, who were forced to 
retreat, and thus lost the prestige of a first success. On the 
22nd, Massena made himself master of the Col de Tarvis, the 
crest of the Alps, commanding the passes both to Carinthia 
and Dalmatia. This important position was won after a 
terrible conflict, known afterwards as " the battle above the 



TEEATY OF CAMPO FORMIO. 1797. XXV 

clouds." The Alps were now passed, and Bonaparte esta- 
blished his head-quarters at Klagenfurth. Meanwhile ano- 
ther French army, under Joubert, had invaded the Tyrol, and 
though constantly successful in its operations, was yet com- 
pelled, by the menacing attitude of the population, to retire 
upon Bonaparte's main army. Bonaparte himself, too, felt that 
his own victorious position was highly insecure, since dangers 
were thickening on his rear, as well as on his flanks and his 
front j and he was left by the jealousy of the Directory 
quite unsupported to make Ins way at the head of 45,000 
men into the heart of the Austrian empire. Wisely fore- 
going, then, all thoughts of dictating peace under the walls 
of Vienna, he offered terms of accommodation to the Aus- 
trian government, whilst, at the same time, he terrified it by 
the impetuosity with which he pressed upon its retreating 
forces. Preliminaries were accordingly signed at Leoben on 
the 18th of April, and a formal peace was concluded at 
Campo Forario on the 17th of October, 1797. 

By this treaty the emperor ceded to France, Flanders, 
the line of the Rhine, and the Lombard provinces ; in com- 
pensation for which, he received from the republic the ter- 
ritory of Venice, which had been seized by Bonaparte sub- 
sequently to the armistice of Leoben, the archbishopric of 
Salzburg, and part of Bavaria, with the town of Wasserburg. 
By this arrangement, Verona, Peschiera, and Porto Legnago 
fell into the hands of the Austrians, who lost in Flanders and 
Lombardy provinces, rich indeed but distant, inhabited hy 
3,500,000 souls, and received in the Venetian states a terri- 
tory of equal riches, with a great seaport and 3,400,000 souls, 
lying close to the hereditary states, besides an acquisition of 
nearly the same amount, which they had made during the 
war, on the side of Poland. The advantages of the treaty, 
therefore, how great soever to the conquerors, were in some 
degree also extended to the vanquished. 

The object of these concessions on the victor's part was to 
render implacable Prussia's ancient jealousy of Austria. 
Hence the secret articles, by which it was expressly provided 
that " no acquisition should be proposed to the advantage of 
Prussia." A convention was appointed to meet at Bastadt, 
to provide equivalents on the right bank of the Rhine for 



XXVI HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

the princes dispossessed on the left, and otherwise to settle 
the affairs of the empire. The ecclesiastical property in the 
interior of Germany was secularised, and apportioned among 
the estates that required indemnification. 

The fall of Venice, and the iniquitous confiscation of the 
independence she had maintained for fourteen hundred 
years, demand more than a passing notice. " In contemplating 
this memorable event," says a writer strongly biassed in 
favour of Austria,'" " it is difficult to say whether most in- 
dignation is to be felt at the perfidy of France, the cupidity 
of Austria, the weakness of the Venetian aristocracy, or the 
insanity of the Venetian people. For the conduct of Napo- 
leon no possible apology can be found. He first excited the 
revolutionary spirit to such a degree in all the Italian pos- 
sessions of the republic, at the very time that his troops 
were fed and clothed by the bounty of its government, that 
disturbances became unavoidable, and then aided the rebels, 
and made the efforts of the government to crush the insur- 
rection the pretext for declaring war against the state. 
He then excited to the uttermost the democratic spirit in 
the capital, took advantage of it to paralyse the defences, 
and overturn the government of the country ; established a 
new constitution on a highly popular basis, and signed a 
treaty on the 16th of May in Milan, by which, on payment 
of a heavy ransom, he agreed to maintain the independence 
of Venice under its new and revolutionary government. 
Having thus committed all his supporters in the state irre- 
vocably in the cause of freedom, and got possession of the 
capital, as that of an allied and friendly power, he plundered 
it of everything valuable it possessed ; and then united 
with Austria in partitioning the republic, took possession of 
one half of its territories for France and the Cisalpine 
republic, and handed over the other half, with the capital 
and its ardent democrats, to the most aristocratic govern- 
ment in Europe. 

" The conduct of Austria, if less perfidious, was not less 
a violation of every principle of public right. Venice, though 
long wavering and irresolute, was at length committed in 

* Alison, History of Europe, vol. vi. 



SECOND WAR WITH FRANCE. XXVU 

open hostilities with the French republic. She had secretly- 
nourished the imperial as well as the republican forces \ she 
had given no cause of offence to the allied powers ; she had 
been dragged, late indeed and unwillingly, but irrevocably, 
into a contest with the republican forces ; and if she had 
committed any fault, it was in favour of the cause in which 
Austria was engaged. Generosity in such circumstances 
would have prompted a noble power to lend the weight of 
its influence in favour of its unfortunate neighbour. Justice 
forbade that it should do anything to aggravate its fate. 
But to share in its spoliation, to seize upon its capital, and 
extinguish its existence, is an act of rapacity for which no 
apology can be offered, and which must for ever form a foul 
stain on the Austrian annals." 



CHAPTER II. 

The Second War with France. 1798-1804. 

The peace of Campo Formio was not of a nature to 
promise long duration, and it was rendered untenable by the 
events which immediately followed it. In 1798 and 1799, 
Switzerland was subdued by the French, and converted into 
a Helvetic republic ; and thus was the great barrier thrown 
down that had protected the Austrian frontiers on the side 
next France. The whole of Italy, with the exception of 
the Venetian territory and Naples, was subjected directly or 
indirectly to the French government. The conduct of the 
French envoys at Rastadt had excited among the Germans 
a universal feeling of indignation and hatred, which burst 
forth during a popular tumult in Vienna, when the tricolour, 
floating from the palace of General Bernadotte, the French 
ambassador, was torn down and burnt. A worse violation 
of the law of nations was also perpetrated during this 
agitated period, in the murderous assault committed on the 
French envoys at Rastadt by Austrian hussars, who had 
been posted in a wood near the city gate to intercept them, 
on their departure (April 28, 1799). This crime, as Hormayr 
observes, was at the same time a political blunder. Its 



XXV1U HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

authors, as he informs us, were Thugut and Lehrbach, the 
rulers of the Austrian cabinet, who had hoped to find on the 
persons of the envoys documents in the handwriting of the 
elector of Bavaria, which would give them the means of 
deposing him as a secret ally of France, and a traitor to the 
empire. In this, they were wholly disappointed. Two of 
the envoys were killed ; the third was badly wounded, and, 
with difficulty, saved his life by flight. Criminal as was the 
conduct of the Austrian ministers on this occasion, it is 
probable that the useless guilt of assassination did not enter 
into their designs, though they were morally responsible for 
the deed committed by their agents. 

Austria had, before this event, formed a second coalition 
with England and Russia. The seizure of Malta by Napoleon, 
and the dispersion of its knightly order, of which the em- 
peror, Paul L, had been elected grand master, afforded that 
monarch a pretext for interfering in the affairs of the Levant 
and Italy. On the 1st of March, 1799, the Ionian Islands 
were occupied by Russian troops, and a Russian army, under 
the terrible Suwarroff, moved, in conjunction with the troops 
of Austria, upon Ita]y. Disunion prevailed, as usual, in the 
Austrian military councils. The Archduke Charles pro- 
posed the invasion of France from Swabia. The occupation 
of Switzerland was, however, resolved upon, and General 
Auffenberg entered the Grisons, whence he was expelled by 
Massena, after being defeated on the St. Luciensteig ; whilst 
Hotze in the Vorarlberg, and Bellegarde in the Tyrol, re- 
mained inactive, at the head of 15,000 men. The simul- 
taneous invasion of Swabia by Jourdan now induced the 
military council at Vienna to accede to the proposal formerly 
made by the Archduke Charles, who was despatched with 
the main body of the army to Swabia, where, on the 26th of 
March, he gained a complete victory over Jourdan at Ostrach 
and Stochach ; and would have annihilated him in his retreat 
had he not been restrained by the ill-judged orders of the 
Aulic Council from advancing to the Rhine, until Switzer- 
land was clear of the enemy. The Grisons were retaken in 
May by Hotze, and in June, the archduke joining him, 
Massena was driven from Zurich, and the steep passes of 
Mount St. Gothard were occupied by the Russian general, 



CAMPAIGN OF THE ALPS. 1799. Xxix 

Hacldik. Switzerland was relieved from the presence of the 
French. 

This campaign of the Alps was the most remarkable 
spectacle, in a military point of view, which the revolutionary 
war had yet exhibited. From the 14th of May to the 6th 
of June was nothing but one continual combat in a vast 
field of battle, extending from the snowy summits of the 
Alps to the confluence of the great streams which flow from 
their perennial fountains. " Posterity will hardly credit 
that great armies could be maintained in such a situation, 
and the same unity of operations communicated to a line 
extending from Bellinzona to Bale, across the highest moun- 
tains in Europe, as to a small body of men manoeuvring on 
the most favourable ground for military operations. The 
consumption of human life, during these actions, prolonged 
for twenty days ; the forced marches by which they were 
succeeded ; the sufferings and privations which the troops 
on both sides endured ; the efforts necessary to find pro- 
visions for large bodies in those inhospitable regions, in many 
of which the traveller or the chamois-hunter can often 
hardly find a footing, combined to render this warfare both 
the most memorable and the most animating which had 
occurred since the fall of the Roman empire." 

Meanwhile, the French, under Scherer, in Italy, were 
defeated (April 5). by Kray at Magnano, one of the most 
glorious battles in the history of the Austrian monarchy ; 
and, thenceforth, they fell from one disaster into another, 
till they were driven over the Maritime Alps, and exj^elled 
from the whole Peninsula, after their defeat in the great 
battle of Novi, in which Joubert, their commander, w^as 
killed, August 15, 1799. Dissensions now broke out be- 
tween the members of the coalition. The English and 
the Austrians were both jealous of the presence of the 
.Russians in Italy, where twenty thousand of them, under 
Suwarroff, had arrived a few days after the battle of 
Magnano; the consequence was, a new arrangement for 
the prosecution of the war, in pursuance of which, 
the archduke moved down the valley of the Rhine to co- 
operate with an Anglo-Russian force acting in Holland, 
whilst Suwaroff was to cross the Alps into Switzerland to 



XXX HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

the aid of Korsakoff, and to involve himself in a mountain 
warfare, ill suited to the habits of his soldiery. This insane 
dislocation of the allied forces was commanded by the Aulic 
Council, in spite of the remonstrances of Archduke Charles, 
just when Massena was meditating offensive operations. Its 
immediate consequence was, that the important passes of the 
St. Gothard were again carried by the French ; and then 
Massena, taking advantage of the archduke's departure, 
beset Korsakoff at Zurich, where he had imprudently 
stationed himself with his whole army, and pressed him so 
closely, that, after an engagement that lasted two days, from 
the 15th to the 17th of September, the Russian general 
escaped the necessity of laying down his arms only by 
forcing his way through the enemy, and abandoning 
all his baggage and artillery. Ten thousand men were all 
that escaped. Hotze, who had advanced from the Grisons to 
Schwyz to Suwarroff's rencontre, was at the same time 
defeated and killed at Sch'annis. Suwarroff pressed on with 
desperate impetuosity, bearing down all opposition, and 
arrived on the 10th of October in the valley of the Rhine, 
having lost in his extraordinary march the whole of his 
artillery, almost all his horses, and a third of his men. 

The archduke, meanwhile, had taken Philippsburg and 
Mannheim, but had been unable to prevent the defeat of the 
English expedition, under the duke of York, by General 
Brune, at Bergen, on the 19th of September. He now made 
a retrograde movement, and approached Korsakoff* and 
Suwarroff ; but the czar, perceiving his projects frustrated, 
suddenly recalled his troops, the campaign came to a close, 
and the coalition was dissolved. The archduke's rear-guard 
was defeated in a succession of petty skirmishes at Heidel- 
berg, and on the Neckar by the French, who again pressed 
forward. These disasters were counterbalanced by the 
splendid victory gained by Melas in Italy, at Savigliano, 
over the French general, Championnet, who attempted in 
vain to save Genoa. 

Meanwhile, Bonaparte had returned from his Egyptian 
campaign to Paris, overthrown the Directory on the 9th of 
November (18th Brumaire), bestowed a new constitution on 
France, and placed himself, under the title of First Consul J 



CAMPAIGNS OF 1800. XXXI 

at the head of the republic. One of his first steps was to 
offer peace to Austria and England, which was rejected by 
both powers, as he had fully anticipated it would be. He 
then prepared for war with his usual promptitude. Moreau 
had the command of the army in Germany, Massena of that 
in Italy, which Bonaparte himself was about to join at the 
head of an army of reserve, collected at Dijon. 

Austria received from England a subsidy of two millions 
sterling, and pledged herself not to conclude a separate 
peace before the 1st of February, 1801. The Archduke 
Charles, who disapproved of the continuance of the war, 
was made governor of Bohemia, and superseded in his com- 
mand of the Austrian forces by Field-Marshal Kray. 

With such consummate skill did Bonaparte mask the 
movements of his army of reserve, as to make its very 
existence matter for derisive incredulity at Vienna ; nor 
were the Austrians undeceived until he had astounded them 
by his presence in Lombard y, after a stupendous march of 
thirteen days across the Great St. Bernard. Genoa, gar- 
risoned by Massena, had just been forced by famine to 
capitulate. Ten days afterwards, on the 14th of June, 
Bonaparte gained such a decisive victory over Melas at 
Marengo, that he, and the remains of his army, capitulated 
on the following day. The whole of Italy fell once more 
into the hands of the French. Moreau had at the same 
time invaded Germany, and defeated Kray in several engage- 
ments, principally at Stockack and Moskirch, and again at 
Biberach and Hochst'adt, laid Swabia and Bavaria under 
contribution, and taken Batisbon, the seat of the diet. The 
Austrians were now threatened with invasion of the Here- 
ditary States, in their most vulnerable quarter, the valley of 
the Danube, when, fortunately for them, the truce which had 
been concluded at Alexandria, after the battle of Marengo, 
was extended to Germany, under the appellation of the 
armistice of Parsdorf (July 15). Overtures were now made 
for peace between France on the one side, and Great Britain 
and Austria on the other, but proved abortive, and hostilities 
recommenced at all points, in the end of November. 

The command of the Austrian army had been taken from 
Kray, and given to the Archduke John, a young man of 

c2 



XXX11 HISTOKY OF AUSTRIA. 



s 



eighteen, with Lauer, the grand master of artillery, for hi 
adviser. On the 27th of November, he quitted his position 
on the line of the Inn, and, advancing into Bavaria, surprised 
Moreau's army, on the march, and drove it back in extreme 
confusion. But, instead of vigorously pursuing the immense 
advantages thus offered to him, he suffered Moreau to retire, 
on the 1st of December, to Hohenlinden, and to spend all 
the next day in concentrating his scattered forces. On the 
3rd, the Austrians were defeated, with immense loss, in the 
tremendous battle of Hohenlinden, more momentous even 
than that of Marengo, in its military consequences. The 
shattered remains of the imperial army retreated behind the 
Inn, disasters still tracking their footsteps. The Archduke 
Charles, whom the unanimous cries of the nation now sum- 
moned to the post of danger, burst into tears, when, instead 
of the proud battalions he had led to victory at Stockach 
and Zurich, he beheld only a confused mass of infantry, 
cavalry, and artillery covering the roads : the bands of dis- 
cipline were broken ; the soldiers neither grouped round 
their colours, nor listened to the voice of their officers ; 
dejection and despair were painted in every countenance. 
His heroic efforts to remedy the disorder were unavailing. 
The rout of the rear-guard, under Prince Sch wart zenb erg, 
with the loss of twelve hundred men, compelled him to 
solicit an armistice, which, after some hesitation, was signed 
by Moreau on the 25th. At the same time, the fate of the 
Italian campaign was determined, by the defeat of the im- 
perialists at the passage of the Mincio (December 26). 
These disasters once more inclined Austria to peace, which 
was concluded at Luneville on the 9th of February, 1801. 
The Archduke Charles seized this opportunity to propose the 
most beneficial reforms in the war administration, but his 
councils were again treated with contempt. In the ensuing 
year, England also concluded peace at Amiens. 

The Emperor Francis was compelled to sign the treaty of 
Luneville " not only as emperor of Austria, but in the name 
of the German empire." But by a fundamental law of the 
empire, the emperor could not bind the electors and states, 
of which he was the head, without either their concurrence, 
or express powers to that effect, previously conferred. The 



TKEATY OF LUNEVILLE. XXXlii 

want of such powers had rendered inextricable the separate 
interests referred to the congress of Rastadt ; but Napoleon, 
whose impatient disposition could not brook such formalities, 
insisted that the emperor should now act as if he possessed 
the powers in question ; leaving him to vindicate such a step 
as he best could to the princes and states of the imperial 
confederacy. This the emperor did in a dignified letter, in 
which, after premising that he had been compelled to sign 
as head of the empire without any title to do so, he added : 
" But, on the other hand, the consideration of the melancholy 
situation in winch at that period a large part of Germany 
was placed, the prospect of the still more calamitous fate 
with which the superiority of the French menaced the 
empire if the peace was any longer deferred; in fine, the 
general wish which was loudly expressed in favour of an 
instant accommodation, were so many powerful motives 
which forbade me to refuse the concurrence of my minister 
to this demand of the French plenipotentiary." Touched 
by this appeal from the first monarch in Christendom, thus 
compelled to throw himself on his subjects for forgiveness of 
a step which he could not avoid, the Diet of the empire 
promptly gave the treaty of Luneville their solemn ratifi- 
cation, grounded on the extraordinary situation in which 
the emperor was then placed. 

By the peace of Luneville, France was left in possession of 
the whole left bank of the Rhine. The petty republics, for- 
merly established by her in Italy, Switzerland, and Holland, 
were also renewed and recognized. The Adige became the 
boundary of Austria on the Italian side. The Cisalpine 
republic was enlarged by the possessions of the grand duke of 
Tuscany, and of the duke of Modena, to whom compensation 
in Germany was guaranteed. This question of compensation, 
which had been opened at the congress of Bastadt, was 
resumed, and finally settled by a decree of the Imperial Diet, 
on the 2oth of February, 1803. The three spiritual electo- 
rates, Mayence, Treves, and Cologne, were abolished, their 
position west of the Rhine including them in the French 
territory. The archbishop of Mayence alone retained his 
dignity, and was transferred to Batisbon. The imperial free 
cities were deprived of their privileges, six alone excepted, 



XXXIV HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

Liibeck, Hamburg, Bremen, Frankfort, Augsburg, and 
Nuremberg. The unsecularised bishoprics and abbeys were 
abolished. The petty princes, counts and barons, and the 
Teutonic order, were still allowed to exist, only to be in- 
cluded ere long in the general ruin. To the share of Prussia 
fell the bishoprics of Hildesheim and Paderborn, a part of 
Minister, and numerous abbeys and imperial free towns in 
Westphalia and Thuringia. The compensations allotted to 
Bavaria laid the foundation of her present greatness. Those 
assigned to Austria were as follows : Ferdinand, duke of 
Modena, the emperor's uncle, obtained the Breisgau in 
exchange for his duchy ; Ferdinand, grand duke of Tuscany, 
the emperor's brother, received Salzburg, Eichstadt, and 
Passau, in exchange for his hereditary possessions. The 
Archduke Anthony became Grand Master of the Teutonic 
order. 

The decision of the Diet with respect to the apportionment 
of all these compensations was made in entire subservience 
to France and Russia, which powers acted in perfect concert 
with each other, and with the acquiescence of Prussia, whose 
share of the indemnities amounted to more than four times 
what she had lost on the left bank of the Rhine. Austria, 
the power best entitled to a preponderating share in the 
negotiation, was very little consulted ; "and thus did Russia 
and Prussia unite with the First Consul in laying the founda- 
tion of that Confederation of the Rhine, from which, as a 
hostile outwork, he was afterwards enabled to lead his 
armies to Jena, Friedland, and the Kremlin."* 

Meanwhile vast preparations had been made on both sides 
of the channel for a renewal of hostilities between France 
and England, which began with the conquest of Hanover by 
the French (May, 1803). Naples was simultaneously invaded 
by French troops. Dissensions had already arisen between 
the Emperor Alexander and the First Consul, and these were 
further exasperated by the murder of the Due d'Enghien, 
who was seized on the neutral territory of Baden, carried to 
the fortress of Yincennes, and there shot on the 21st of 
March. This atrocious deed, which was not less impolitic 

* Alison, History of Europe, j 



FIRST WAR WITH THE FRENCH EMPIRE. XXXV 

xhan criminal, gave an immense impulse to the fermenting 
elements of a coalition against France. 

Such was the state of things in Europe, when, on the 18th 
of May, a decree of the French senate declared Napoleon 
Emperor of the French. Instead of testifying any repug- 
nance at this step, the Austrian cabinet had the address to 
use it as the long-sought opportunity for a similar measure 
on their own part ; and on the 11th of August, 1804, after 
the Emperor Francis, in a full council, had recognized the 
title of the Emperor .Napoleon, he assumed for himself and 
his successors in the Austrian dominions, the title of 
" Emperor of Austria." 



CHAPTER III. 

First War with the French Empire to the Extinction of the Holy Roman 
Empire. 1805-1806. 

On the 11th of April, 1805, an alliance was formed 
between England and Russia, for the purpose of resisting the 
encroachments of France. Austria and Sweden joined the 
coalition some months later. Prussia held aloof, in the 
hope of receiving Hanover as a reward for her neutrality. 
Baden, Wurtemberg, and Bavaria, sided with France. 

Deceived by the vast efforts which Napoleon was ostensibly 
making for the invasion of England, Austria broke ground 
on the 9th of September, crossed the Inn, overran Bavaria, 
and took post in the Black Forest. Meanwhile the camp at 
Boulogne had been broken up, and the troops composing it 
arrived on the Rhine, from the 17th to the 23rd of the same 
month. The Russian troops had been refused a passage 
through the Prussian territory. The precipitance of the 
Aulic council, in forcing on hostilities before their arrival, 
was the ruin of the campaign. Napoleon sent orders to 
Bernadotte, who was stationed in Hanover, to cross the 
neutral Prussian territory of Anspach, without demanding 
the permission of Prussia, so as to form a junction with the 
Bavarian troops in the rear of the Austrians. Other corps 
were, at the same time, directed by circuitous routes upon 
the flanks of the Austrian army, which was assailed with 



XX XVI HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

doubtful success at Haplach on the 11th of October, de- 
feated with loss at Memmingen on the 13th, by Soult, and 
fatally by Ney at Elchingen on the 11th. The Archduke 
Ferdinand, aloiie, succeeded in fighting his way, with a }}art 
of the cavalry, through the enemy. Mack, the commander- 
in-chief, who had stupidly suffered himself to be thus sur- 
rounded and entrapped, shut himself up in Ulm, but was 
forced to surrender on the 20th. With him 60,000 Austrians, 
the elite of the army, fell into the hands of the enemy. 
"Napoleon could scarcely spare a sufficient number of men to 
escort this enormous crowd of prisoners to France. General 
Wernek, who had been detached from Ulm, was also com- 
pelled to surrender at Trochtelfingen with 8,000 men. 

The blame of these disasters was wholly laid by the 
Austrian government on General Mack; he was subjected 
to a court of inquiry, and condemned to twenty years' 
imprisonment in consequence. Upon the conclusion of the 
war, Napoleon interceded for him, but in vain. But, as 
Alison justly remarks, although this unfortunate general was 
obviously inadequate to the difficult task imposed upon him 
of commanding a great army, which was to combat Napoleon, 
and although he evidently lost his judgment and unneces- 
sarily agreed to a disgraceful abridgment of the period of 
the capitulation at the close of the negotiations, yet the 
whole diasters of the campaign are not to be visited on his 
head. The improvidence of the imperial government, the 
faults of the Aulic Council, have much also to answer for. 
Mack's authority was not firmly established in the army; the 
great name of the Archduke Ferdinand overshadowed his 
influence ; the necessity of providing for the safety of a 
prince of the imperial house overbalanced every other con- 
sideration, and compelled, against his judgment, that division 
of the troops to which the unexampled disasters that fol- 
lowed may be immediately ascribed. It is reasonable to 
impute to the unfortunate general extreme improvidence in 
remaining so long at Ulm, when Napoleon's legions were 
closing round him, and great weakness of judgment, to give 
it no severer name, in afterwards capitulating without trying 
some great effort, with concentrated forces, to effect his 
•escape. But there appears no reason to suppose, as the 



INVASION OF THE TYUOL. XXXVU 

Austrian government did, that lie wilfully betrayed their 
interests to Napoleon ; and it is to be recollected, in 
extenuation of his faults, that his authority, controlled by 
the Aulic Council, was in some degree shared with an 
assembly of officers, which, it is proverbially known, never 
adopts a bold resolution ; and that he was at the head of 
troops habituated to the discreditable custom of laying down 
their arms, on the first reverse, in large bodies. 

The Aulic Council, which had begun offensive operations 
in Germany with the weaker of their two great armies, 
obliged the stronger of them, under Archduke Charles, to 
remain on the defensive in Italy, in presence of inferior 
forces, whilst they retained 20,000 men in useless inactivity 
in the Tyrol, where as yet there was no enemy to combat. 
After Mack's surrender, Napoleon, with his usual rapidity, 
marched with hie. main body straight upon Vienna, whilst 
he despatched Ney into the Tyrol, where the peasantry, 
headed by the Archduke John, made an heroic defence. 
The advanced guard of the French, composed of the Bava- 
rians under Deroy, made a successful irruption on the 
eastern frontier, and blockaded Kuffstein. Augereau threat- 
ened Feldkirch, whilst Ney carried the mountain entrench- 
ment of Schaarnitz by storm, and reached Innsbruck, where 
he captured sixteen thousand stand of arms. The Archduke 
John was compelled to retire to Carinthia, in order to form 
a junction with his brother Charles, who, after beating Mas- 
sena at Caldiero, had been necessitated by Mack's defeat to 
hasten from Italy for the purpose of covering Austria. Two 
corps, left in the hurry of retreat too far westward, were cut 
off and taken prisoners, that under Prince Rohan at Castel- 
franco, after having found its way from Meran into the 
Venetian territory, and that under Jellachich on the lake of 
Constance. Kensky's and Wartenleben's cavalry threw 
themselves boldly into Swabia and Franconia, seized the 
couriers and convoys to the French rear, and escaped unhurt 
to Bohemia. 

A new enemy was meanwhile rising up against Napoleon. 
Bernadotte's march through Anspach, in violation of the 
Prussian territory, had given deep offence to the court of 
Berlin, and exasperated its subjects in the highest degree, 



XXX V1U HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

At that crisis the Emperor Alexander arrived at Berlin, and 
exerted all his influence to induce the king to adopt a more 
manly and courageous policy. Alexander was warmly 
seconded by the queen of Prussia ; French influence rapidly 
declined in the capital ; Duroc left it on the 2nd of No- 
vember, without having been able to obtain an audience for 
some days previously either from the king or the emperor ; 
and on the following day a secret convention was signed 
between the two monarchs for the regulation of the affairs 
of Europe, and the erection of a barrier against the ambition 
of the French emperor. By this convention it was stipu- 
lated that the treaty of Luneville was to be taken as the 
basis of the arrangement, and all the acquisitions which 
France had since made were to be wrested from it : Switzer- 
land and Holland were to be restored to their independence, 
and, without overturning the kingdom of Italy, it was to be 
merely agreed that its throne and that of France were never 
to be occupied by the same person. The Prussian minister, 
Hangwitz, was to be entrusted with the notification of this 
convention to Napoleon, with authority, in case of its ac- 
ceptance, to cifer a renewal of the former friendship and 
alliance of the Prussian nation ; but in case of refusal, to 
declare war, with an intimation that hostilities would be 
commenced on the loth of December. But before that day 
came, the opportunity was lost. After Alexander's depar- 
ture, Prussia relapsed into her old temporising habits ; her 
armies made no forward movement towards the Danube, and 
Napoleon was permitted to continue, without interruption, 
nis advance to Vienna ; while eighty thousand disciplined 
veterans remained inactive in Silesia — a force amply sufficient 
to have thrown him back with disgrace and disaster to the 
Rhine. 

Napoleon continued his advance, and on the 5th of 
November established his head quarters at Lintz, the capital 
of Upper Austria. He had with him, marching in one 
body, at least two-thirds of his whole army of 150,000 men, 
whilst the whole allied force between him and Yienna, 
including the Russians under Kutusoff, might be reckoned 
at about 65,000. A bloody conflict took place on the same 
day at Amstetten with the rear guard of the Russians, who, 



BATTLE OF AUSTERL1TZ. XXXIX 

though overpowered by numbers, maintained their ground 
long enough to allow their main body to arrive at the 
important rocky ridge behind St. Polten, the last defensive 
position in front of Vienna. Kutusoff, however, finding that 
position untenable, skillfully withdrew his whole army to the 
left bank of the Danube, and broke down behind him the 
bridge at Mautern, the only one which crosses the river 
between Lintz and Vienna. On the 10th, an Austrian 
corps, under Meerveldt, was routed, with the loss of 3,000 
prisoners, by Davoust, at Mariazell. But the advanced 
guard of the French being hurried forward too precipitately 
by Murat, afforded Kutusoff an advantageous opportunity 
for attacking the French corps under Mortier, which was 
next in advance. A desperate action was fought at Diiren- 
stein (Nov. 11); Mortier's corps was with difficulty saved 
from total destruction, and Napoleon's plans for the campaign 
were for a moment disconcerted. Nothing, however, could 
avert the humiliation of Vienna. The Austrians had neg- 
lected to break down the city bridge : it was seized by 
stratagem ; Vienna was taken, and Napoleon established his 
head quarters at Schonbrunn. 

Kutusoff's finesse and Bagration's heroic stand at Holla- 
brunn, with 8,000 Russians against iive times their number 
of assailants, enabled the allied forces to effect a junction on 
the 19th, at Wischau, in Moravia. Napoleon's situation 
was now becoming critical. The necessity of guarding so 
many points, and keeping up a communication from Vienna 
to the Rhine, had greatly reduced his army ; the Archduke 
Charles, with 80,000 tried veterans, was rapidly approaching 
from the south ; the Hungarian insurrection was organizing 
in the east ; 75,000 Russians and Austrians were in front of 
him; while Prussia was threatening a descent from Silesia, 
with 80,000 men, on his communications with the Rhine. 
Resolving, therefore, to strike a decisive blow, he selected for 
the scene of action the field of Austerlitz, where, on the 2nd 
of December, in presence of two rival emperors, he achieved 
the most illustrious of all his victories. It was followed by 
the peace of Presburg (Dec. 26), which Austria purchased at 
an enormous sacrifice. She ceded to Bavaria, now erected 
into a kingdom, the whole of the Tyrol, Vorarlberg and 



Xl HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

Lindau, Burgau, Passau, Eichstiidt, Trent and Brixen, besides 
several petty lordships : to Wurtemberg, likewise become a 
kingdom, the bordering Austrian dominions in Swabia : to 
Baden, the Breisgau, the Ortenau, and Constance : to the 
emperor of the French and king of Italy, the Venetian 
territory, Dalmatia, Albania, &c. She had to pay, moreover, 
a war contribution of four millions sterling. For all these 
losses, Austria was merely indemnified by the possession of 
Salzburg and Berchtesgaden. Ferdinand, elector of Salz- 
burg, the former grand duke of Tuscany, was transferred to 
Wurzburg. Ferdinand of Modena lost the whole of his 
possessions. 

Immediately after the conclusion of the peace of Presburg, 
Napoleon withdrew his forces, and the Emperor Francis 
re-entered Vienna, where he was received by his subjects 
with as much respect and affection as though he had con- 
quered instead of losing so many provinces. 

On the 12th of July, 1806, sixteen princes of Western 
Germany concluded, under Napoleon's direction, a treaty, 
whereby they separated themselves from the German empire, 
and founded the so-called Confederation of the Rhine, under 
the supremacy of the emperor of the French. On the 1st of 
August, Napoleon declared that he no longer recognised the 
empire of Germany. No one ventured to oppose his omni- 
potent voice. On the 6th of August, 1806, the Emperor 
Francis abdicated the imperial crown of Germany, in a 
touching address, full of calm dignity and sorrow. The last 
of the German emperors had shown himself throughout the 
contest worthy of his great predecessors, and had almost alone 
sacrificed all in order to preserve the honour of Germany, 
until, abandoned by the greater part of the German princes, 
he was compelled to yield to a stronger power. The fall of 
the empire that had stood the storms of a thousand years 
was, however, not without dignity. A meaner hand might 
have levelled the decayed fabric with the dust ; but fate, 
that seemed to honour even the faded majesty of the ancient 
Csesars, selected Napoleon as the executioner of her decrees. 
The standard of Charlemagne, the greatest hero of the first 
Christian age, was to be profaned by no hand save that of 
the greatest hero of modern times/"" 

* Menzel, History of Germany. 



SECOND WAB WITH THE FRENCH EMPIRE. xli 

CHAPTER IV. 

Second War with the French Empire. 1806-1809. 

The peace of Presburg was quickly followed by war be- 
tween France and Prussia, in which the latter suffered a 
terrible retribution for the selfish and base policy that had 
induced her to leave Austria unaided in her heroic struggles 
against the common foe of Europe. Great efforts were made 
by Prussia's allies, England and Russia, to obtain the co- 
operation of Austria, but that power prudently adhered to 
the system of neutrality, which was needful to her after her 
recent losses. She armed, indeed, and assumed a menacing 
attitude, during the reverses sustained by the French in the 
subsequent Polish campaign ; but upon the termination of 
the contest, after the disaster of Friedland, she resumed her 
pacific attitude. 

Meanwhile, the government was not idle. During the 
whole of 1806 and 1807, the efforts of the Archduke Charles, 
•now at the head of the war department, were incessant, to 
restore the materiel lost in the last campaign, and to remodel 
the army upon the admirable system adopted by Napoleon. 
Emboldened by the diversion of a large portion of the French 
army from Germany, on the breaking out of the Spanish 
war, the cabinet of Yienna issued a decree on the 9th of 
June, 1808, instituting a landwehr or militia to be raised by 
.conscription, which soon amounted to 300,000 men, whilst 
the regular army numbered 350,000. 

On receiving decisive intelligence of these hostile pre- 
parations, Napoleon returned with extraordinary expedition 
from Spain to Paris, in January, 1809, and gave orders to 
concentrate his forces in Germany, and call out the full 
contingents of the Confederation of the Rhine. Some further 
time was consumed by the preparations on either side. At 
last, on the 8th of April, the Austrian troops crossed the 
frontiers at once on the Inn, in Bohemia, in the Tyrol and 
in Italy. The whole burthen of the war rested on Austria 
alone, for Prussia remained neutral, and Russia, now allied 
to France, was even bound to make a show at least, though 
it were no more, of hostility to Austria. On the same day 



xlii HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

on which the Austrian forces crossed the frontiers, the Tyrol 
rose in insurrection, and was swept clear of the enemy in 
four days, with the exception of a Bavarian garrison, that 
still held out in Kufstein. 

The French army was at this time dispersed over a line of 
forty leagues in extent, with numerous undefended apertures 
between the corps ; so that the fairest possible opportunity 
presented itself to the Austrians for cutting to pieces the 
scattered forces of the French, and marching in triumph to 
the Rhine. As usual, however, the archduke's early move- 
ments were subjected to most impolitic delays by the Aulic 
Council ; and time was allowed Napoleon to arrive on the 
theatre of war (April 17), and repair the faults committed 
by his adjutant-general, Berthier. He instantly extricated 
his army from its perilous position — almost cut in two by 
the advance of the Austrians — and, beginning on the 19th, 
he beat the latter in five battles on five successive days, at 
Thaun, Abensberg, Landshut, Eckmuhl, and Batisbon. The 
Archduke Charles retired into Bohemia to collect re- 
inforcements, but General Hiller was, in consequence of the 
delay in repairing the fortifications of Linz, unable to main- 
tain that place, the possession of which was important, on 
account of its forming a connecting point between Bohemia 
and the Austrian Oberland. Hiller, however, at least, saved 
his honour by pushing forward to the Traun, and in a fear- 
fully bloody encounter at Ebersberg, captured three French 
eagles, one of his colours alone falling into the enemy's 
hands. He was, nevertheless, compelled to retire before the 
superior forces of the French, and crossing over at Krems to 
the left bank of the Danube, he formed a junction with the 
Archduke Charles. The way was now clear to Vienna, 
which, after a slight show of defence, capitulated to Napoleon 
on the 12th of May. 

The Archduke Charles had hoped to reach the capital 
before the French, and to give battle to them beneath its 
walls ; but as he had to make a circuit whilst the French 
pushed forward in a direct line, his plan was frustrated, and 
he arrived, when too late, from Bohemia. Both armies, 
separated by the Danube, stood opposed to one another in 
the vicinity of the imperial city. Both commanders were 



BATTLE OF ASPERN. xliii 

desirous of coining to a decisive engagement. The French 
had secured the island of Lobau to serve as a mustering 
place, and point of transit across the Danube. The archduke 
allowed them to establish a bridge of boats, being resolved 
to await them on the Marchfeld. There it was that Rudolph 
of Habsburg, in the battle against Ottakar, had laid the 
foundation of the greatness of the house of Austria ; and 
there the political existence of that house and the fate of 
the monarchy were now to be decided. Having crossed the 
river, Napoleon was received on the opposite bank, near 
Aspem and Esslingen, by his opponent, and, after a dreadful 
battle, that was carried on with unwearied animosity for two 
days, May 21st and 22nd, 1809, he was completely beaten, 
and compelled to fly for refuge to the island of Lobau. The 
rising stream had, meanwhile, carried away the bridge, 
Napoleon's sole chance of escape to the opposite bank. For 
two days he remained on the island with his defeated troops, 
without provisions, and in hourly expectation of being cut to 
pieces ; the Austrians, however, neglected to turn the oppor- 
tunity to advantage, and allowed the French leisure to re- 
build the bridge, a work of extreme difficulty. During six 
weeks afterwards, the two armies continued to occupy their 
former positions under the walls of Vienna, on the right and 
left banks of the Danube, narrowly watching each other's 
movements, and preparing for a final struggle. 

Whilst these events were in progress, the Archduke John 
had successfully penetrated into Italy, where he had totally 
defeated the Viceroy Eugene at Salice, on the 1 6th of April 
Favoured by the simultaneous revolt of the Tyrolese, he 
might have obtained the most decisive results from this 
victory, but the extraordinary progress of Napoleon down 
the valley of the Danube rendered necessary the concentra- 
tion of the whole forces of the monarchy for the defence of 
the capital. Having begun a retreat, he was pursued by 
Eugene, and defeated on the Piave, with great loss, on the 
8th of May. Escaping thence, without further molestation, 
to Villach, in Carinthia, he received intelligence of the fall 
of Vienna, together with a letter from the Archduke Charles, 
of the 15th of May, directing him to move with all his 
forces upon Lintz, to act on the rear and communications of 



xliv HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

Napoleon. Instead of obeying these orders, he thought 
proper to march into Hungary, abandoning the Tyrol and the 
whole projected operations on the Upper Danube to their fate. 
His disobedience was disastrous to the fortunes of his house, 
for it caused the fruits of the victory at Aspern to be lost. 
He might have arrived, with 50,000 men, on the 24th or 
2oth, at Lintz, where no one remained but Bernadotte and 
the Saxons, who were incapable of offering any serious re- 
sistance. Such a force, concentrated on the direct line of 
Napoleon's communications, immediately after his defeat at 
Aspern, on the 22nd, would have deprived him of all means 
of extricating himself from the most perilous situation in which 
he had yet been placed since ascending the consular throne. 

After totally defeating Jellachich in the valley of the 
Muhr, Eugene desisted from his pursuit of the army of 
Italy, and joined Napoleon at Vienna. The Archduke John 
united his forces at Kaab with those of the Hungarian in- 
surrection, under his brother the Palatine. The viceroy 
again marched against him, and defeated him at Raab on 
the 14th of June. The Palatine remained with the Hun- 
garian insurrection in Komorn ; Archduke John moved 
on to Presburg. 

In the north, the Archduke Ferdinand, who had advanced 
as far as Warsaw, had been driven back by the Poles under 
Poniatowsky, and by a Russian force sent by the Emperor 
Alexander to their aid, which, on this success, invaded 
Galicia. 

On the 11th of May, the Tyrol was invaded by the French 
in great force under Lefebre, and by the Bavarians under 
Deroy. Innsbruck was taken on the 1 9th, and affairs seemed 
utterly desperate in the mountains ; but, on the 28th, the 
Bavarian garrison was totally defeated by Hofer, Haspinger, 
and Spechbacher, and the Tyrol was once more swept clear 
of the invaders. 

When Napoleon had completed his means of transit, and 
obtained strong reinforcements, he again crossed the iJanube, 
and began the attack at Wagram, not far from the battle- 
ground of Aspern. The conflict lasted two days, the oth 
and 6th of July. The object of the Austrian commander 
was to maintain the light so long as to give time for the re- 



BATTLE OF WAGRAJL xlv 

serve under the Archduke John, whom he had summoned from 
Presburg, to appear on the right flank and the rear of the 
French. The battle was one of the most tremendous in the 
annals of war. The Austrians fought with admirable 
gallantry, lost one of their colours, but captured twelve 
eagles and standards of the enemy. Their heroic leader was 
slightly wounded on the first day, whilst rallying one of his 
battalions. For a day and a half the issue of the conflict 
continued doubtful, until at last the Austrian left wing was 
outflanked by the French cavalry. Then, in obedience to the 
command of their chief, the Austrians slowly retired in regu- 
lar order, without the loss of either prisoners or cannon. Two 
hours afterwards, the heads of the Archduke John's columns 
were seen approaching the bloody field. But they were now 
too late to be of any use, and they fell back again on Pres- 
burg. Had they arrived in time, there can be no doubt that 
Napoleon would have been totally defeated. This is dis- 
tinctly acknowledged by General Pelet, the French historian 
of this campaign, and a distinguished actor in it. 

The retreat was continued, without any serious molestation 
from the enemy, to Znaym, where the Archduke Charles 
took up a position on the 7th of July. A violent combat 
took place there on the 11th, but it was interrupted by the 
announcement of an armistice, which was followed on the 
10th of October, after long negotiation, by the peace of 
Vienna. Austria was compelled to cede Carniola, Trieste, 
Croatia, and Dalmatia to Napoleon ; Salzburg, Berchtolds- 
gaden, the Innviertel, and the Hausrukviertei to Bavaria ; 
a part of Galicia to Warsaw, and another part to Russia. 
She lost altogether 32,000 square miles of territory, three 
and a half millions of subjects, all contact with the sea, all 
exit for her trade. As a crowning indignity, she had to 
submit to see the ramparts of Vienna blown up, — a wanton 
act of military oppression, which exasperated the people in 
the highest degree, and was a bad preliminary to the cordial 
alliance which Napoleon desired. 

By the convention of Znaym and the subsequent treaty of 

Vienna, the Tyrol reverted to its Bavarian masters ; but 

the brave mountaineers refused to acknowledge the conven- 
es 

tion, for their emperor had promised to conclude no peace 

d 



xlvi HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

which did not secure to him the possession of that loyal 
land. After all the Austrian regular troops had withdrawn 
from the province, the peasants, under Hofer, Haspinger, 
Spechbacher, and other leaders, still maintained the contest 
against Lefebvre and his 30,000 men. An advanced guard 
of French and Bavarians were defeated by Haspinger at the 
bridge of Laditch (Aug. 4), with a loss of 12,000 men ; six 
days afterwards, Marshal Lefebvre himself, with 20,000 
troops, was routed with immense loss on the Brenner (Aug. 
10) ; and again he suffered a total defeat with all his forces 
at Innspruck (Aug. 12), and the Tyrol was once more 
evacuated by the invaders. But this triumph of the peasants 
was of short duration. The Tyrol was again invaded with 
an overwhelming force ; the insurgents were blockaded in 
their mountain valleys in the depth of winter, and starved 
into submission. Hofer was captured, tried by court-martial 
at Milan, and shot by the express order of Napoleon. 



CHAPTER V. 

From the Treaty of Vienna to the Final Overthrow of Napoleon. 
1810-1815. 

Immediately after the treaty of Vienna, Count Clement 
Metternich, who had previously been ambassador to France, 
became the leader of the Austrian cabinet, and minister for 
foreign affairs, a position which he retained for thirty-eight 
years. He had not been many months in office when a 
treaty of marriage was concluded between the Emperor 
Napoleon, who in the meanwhile had been divorced from 
Josephine, and the archduchess of Austria, Maria Louisa, 
eldest daughter of the Emperor Francis. The nuptials were 
solemnized with extraordinary pomp at Paris, on the 2nd of 
April, 1810 ; but the conflagration of the house of the Aus- 
trian ambassador, Prince Schwartzenberg, during a splendid 
fete given by him to the newly-wedded pair, ominously 
marred the festivities. Several persons perished in the 
flames, — among the rest, the ambassador's sister-in-law, Prin- 
cess Paulina Schwartzenberg, who had rushed into the burn- 



STATE BANKRUPTCY OF AUSTRIA. 1811. xlvii 

ing building to rescue her daughter. In the ensuing year 
the young empress gave birth to a prince, Napoleon Francis, 
who was laid in a silver cradle and provisionally entitled 
king of Rome, to signify his future destiny to succeed his 
father on the throne of the Roman empire. 

Exhausted by her continual exertions for the maintenance 
of the war, Austria now offered a melancholy contrast to the 
magnificence of her new ally. The state could no longer meet 
its obligations, and on the 15th of March, 1811, Count Wallis, 
the finance minister, struck eighty per cent, off the value of one 
thousand and sixty millions of bank paper, and reduced the 
interest on the whole of the state debts to one half, payable 
in the new paper issue. This fearful state bankruptcy was 
accompanied by the fall of innumerable private firms ; trade 
was completely stopped, and the contributions demanded by 
Napoleon amounted to a sum almost impossible to realize. 

The alliance of Austria, secured to Napoleon by so inti- 
mate a tie, seemed in the eyes of all Europe, as well as 
in his own, an unfailing pledge of the permanence of his 
dynasty. In reality it caused his destruction, by removing 
the last impediment to his design of invading Russia. When 
war was declared by France against that power in 1812, 
Austria desired to remain neutral, but was compelled, like 
Prussia, to furnish an auxiliary force under the command of 
Prince Schwartzenberg. Napoleon crossed the Niemen at 
the head of 600,000 combatants, of whom all but 80,000 
perished. Among those who escaped were 30,000 Austrians 
and 18,000 Prussians, so that the survivors of the proper 
French army were not above 32,000. 

On the 30th of December, General York signed a conven- 
tion with General Diebitch, in virtue of which the Prussian 
troops became neutral, and only waited the commands of the 
king of Prussia to unite themselves to the victorious Rus- 
sians. Prince Schwartzenberg refused to follow this ques- 
tional example, or to surrender Warsaw, to which he had 
retreated ; but the Russians abstained from molesting the 
soldiers of a nation which they foresaw would soon be allied 
to their own. 

Rallying with amazing promptitude from the tremendous 
blow he had suffered in Russia, Napoleon raised a fresh army 

d2 



xlviii HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

of 300,000 men in the beginning of 1813, in order to crush 
the insurrection in which all Northern Germany had joined, 
with the exception of Saxony, after Prussia had openly 
adhered to the Russian alliance. Great efforts were now 
made by the cabinets of Berlin and St. Petersburg to detach 
Austria from France ; and so strongly were the national 
feelings declared in favour of that policy, that M. de Metter- 
nich had the utmost difficulty in withstanding the torrent, 
and evading the hazard of committing his government pre- 
maturely. Temporizing with consummate art, he offered the 
mediation of his government between the hostile parties, 
and at the same time prosecuted his military preparations on 
such a scale as would enable Austria to act no subordinate 
part on the one side or the other in the coming struggle. 
Meanwhile hostilities began ; the Russians and Prussians 
were defeated by Napoleon at Liitzen and Bautzen, and were 
fortunate in concluding an armistice with him at Pleisswitz 
on the 4th of June, 1813. 

On the 27th, Austria signed a treaty at Reichenbach, in 
Silesia, with Russia and Prussia, by which she bound herself 
to declare war with France, in case Napoleon had not, before 
the termination of the armistice, accepted the terms of peace 
about to be proposed to him. A pretended congress for the 
arrangement of the treaty was again agreed to by both sides ; 
but Napoleon delayed to grant full powers to his envoy, 
and the allies, who had meanwhile heard of Wellington's 
victory at Vittoria, and the expulsion of the French from 
Spain, gladly seized this pretext to break off the negotia- 
tions. Meanwhile, Metternich, whose voice was virtually to 
decide Napoleon's fate, met him at Dresden with an offer of 
peace, on condition of the surrender of the French conquests 
in Germany. Napoleon, with an infatuation only equalled 
by his attempts to negotiate at Moscow, spurned the pro- 
posal, and even went the length of charging Count Metter- 
nich with taking bribes from England. The conference, 
which was conducted on Napoleon's part in so insulting a 
manner, and at times in tones of passion so violent as to be 
overheard by the attendants, lasted till near midnight on 
the 10th of August, the day with which the armistice was 
to expire. The fatal hour passed by, and that night Count 



BATTLE OF DRESDEN. xlix 

Metternich drew up the declaration of war, on the part of 
his government, against France. Austria coalesced with 
Russia and Prussia, and in a certain degree assumed a rank 
conventionally superior to both. The Austrian general, 
Prince Schwartzenberg, was appointed generalissimo of the 
whole of the allied armies, and the manifesto of Count Met- 
ternich spoke already in the tone of the future regulator 
of the affairs of Europe. 

The plan of the allies was to advance with the main body 
under Schwartzenberg, 190,000 strong, through the Hartz 
mountains to Napoleon's rear. Bliicher, with 95,000 men, 
was meanwhile to cover Silesia, or in case of an attack by 
Napoleon's main body, to retire before it, and draw it further 
eastward. Bernadotte, who had become crown prince of 
Sweden, was to cover Berlin with 90,000 men, and in case 
of a victory, was to form a junction, rearward of Napoleon, 
with the main body of the allied army. A mixed division 
under Wallmoden, 30,000 strong, was destined to watch 
Davoust, in Hamburg, whilst the Bavarian and Italian 
frontiers were respectively guarded by 25,000 Austrians 
under Prince Beuss, and 40,000 Austrians under Hiller. 
Napoleon's main body, consisting of 250,000 men, was con- 
centrated in and round Dresden. 

The campaign opened with the march of a French force 
under Oudinot against Berlin. This attack having com- 
pletely failed, Napoleon marched in person against Bliicher, 
who cautiously retired before him. Dresden being thus left 
uncovered, the allies changed their plan of operations, and 
marched straight upon the Saxon capital. But they arrived 
too late, Napoleon having already returned thither, after 
despatching Yandamme's corps to Bohemia, to seize the 
passes and cut off Schwartzenberg's retreat. The allies 
attempted to storm Dresden, on the 26th of August, but 
were repulsed after suffering a frightful loss. On the follow- 
ing day Napoleon assumed the offensive, cut off the left wing 
of the allies, and made an immense number of prisoners, 
chiefly Austrians. The main body fled in all directions ; 
part of the troops disbanded, and the whole must have been 
annihilated but for the misfortune of Vandamme, who was 
taken prisoner, with his whole corps, on the 29th. 



1 HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

At the same time (August 26) a splendid victory was 
gained by Blucher, on the Katzbach, over Macdonald, who 
reached Dresden almost alone, to say to Napoleon, " Your 
army of the Bober is no longer in existence." This disaster 
to the French arms was followed by the defeat of Ney at 
Dennewitz, by the Prussians and Swedes on the 6th of Sep- 
tember. Napoleon's generals were thrown back in every 
quarter, with immense loss, on Dresden, towards which the 
allies now advanced again, threatening to enclose it on every 
side. Napoleon manoeuvred until the beginning of October, 
with the view of executing a coup de main against Schwart- 
zenberg and Blucher, but their caution foiled him, and at 
length he found himself compelled to retreat, lest he should 
be cut off from the Rhine, for Blucher had crossed the Elbe, 
joined Bernadotte, and approached the head of the main 
army under Schwartzenberg. Moreover, the Bavarian army 
under Wrede declared against the French on the 8th of 
October, and was sent to the Main to cut off their retreat. 
Marching to Leipsic, the emperor there encountered the 
allies on the 16th of October, and fought an indecisive 
action, which, however, was in his case equivalent to a defeat. 
He strove to negotiate a separate peace with the emperor of 
Austria, but no answer was returned to his proposals. After 
some partial engagements on the 17th, the main battle was 
renewed on the 18th ; it raged with prodigious violence all 
day, and ended in the defeat of Napoleon ; Leipsic was 
stormed on the following day, and the French emperor nar- 
rowly escaped being taken prisoner. He had lost 60,000 
men in the four days' battle ; with the remainder of his 
troops he made a hasty and disorderly retreat, and after 
losing many more in his disastrous flight, he crossed the 
Bhine on the 20th of October with 70,000 men. The gar- 
risons he had left behind gradually surrendered, and by No- 
vember, all Germany, as far as the Bhine, was freed from 
the presence of the French. 

In the following month the allies simultaneously invaded 
France in three directions, — Biilow from Holland, Blucher 
from Coblentz, and Schwartzenberg, with the allied sovereigns, 
by Switzerland and the Jura ; whilst Wellington also was 
advancing from the Pyrenees, at the head of the army which 



FIRST INVASION OF FRANCE. 11 

had liberated the Peninsula. In twenty-five days after their 
passage of the Rhine the allied armies had succeeded, almost 
without firing a shot, in wresting a third of France from the 
grasp of Napoleon. Their united forces stretched diagonally 
across France in a line three hundred miles long, from the 
frontiers of Flanders to the hanks of the Rhone. On the 
other hand, the French emperor, though his force was little 
more than a third of that wliich was at the command of the 
allies, had the advantage of an incomparably more concen- 
trated position, his troops being all stationed within the 
limits of a narrow triangle, of which Paris, Laon, and Troyes 
formed the angles. Besides this, there was no perfect una- 
nimity among his enemies. Austria, leaning on the matri- 
monial alliance, was reluctant to push matters to extremities, 
if it could possibly be avoided ; Russia and Prussia were 
resolute to overthrow Napoleon's dynasty ; whilst the coun- 
cils of England, which in this diversity held the balance, 
were as yet divided as to the final issue. There was a pros- 
pect, therefore, that the want of concert between the allies 
would afford profitable opportunities to the military genius 
of the French emperor. 

On the 29th of January, Napoleon made an unexpected 
attack on Bluchers corps at Brienne, in which the Prussian 
marshal narrowly escaped being made prisoner. But not 
being pursued with sufficient vigour, and having procured 
reinforcements, Bliicher had his revenge at La Rothiere, 
where he attacked Napoleon with superior forces and routed 
him. Still Sehwartzenberg delayed his advance and divided 
his troops, whilst Bliicher, pushing rapidly forward on Paris, 
was again unexpectedly attacked by the main body of the 
French army, and all his corps, as they severally advanced, 
were defeated with terrible loss, between the 10th and 14th 
of February. On the 17th, Napoleon routed the advanced 
guard of the main army at Nangis, and again on the 18th 
he inflicted' a heavy defeat on them at Montereau. Auge- 
reau meanwhile, with an army levied in the south of France, 
had driven the Austrians under Bubna into {Switzerland, and 
had posted himself at Geneva, in the rear of the allies, who 
became so alarmed as to resolve on a general retreat, and 
propose an armistice. Negotiations for peace had been in 



Hi HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

progress for several weeks at Chatillon, and the allies were 
now more than ever desirous that the terms they offered 
should be accepted. But so confident was Napoleon in the 
returning good fortune of his arms, that he would not even 
consent to a suspension of hostilities while the conferences 
for an armistice were going on. As for the conference at 
Chatillon, he used it only as a means to gain time, fully 
resolved not to purchase peace by the reduction of his 
empire within the ancient limits of the French monarchy. 

Bliicher became furious on being informed of the inten- 
tion to retreat, and with the approval of the Emperor Alex- 
ander, he resolved to separate from the main army, and push 
on for Paris. Being reinforced on the Marne by Winzinge- 
rode and Billow, he encountered Napoleon at Craone on the 
7th of March. The battle was one of the most obstinately 
contested of the whole revolutionary war ; the loss on both 
sides was enormous, but neither could claim a victory. Two 
days afterwards the emperor was defeated at Laon ; but 
Bluchers army was reduced to inactivity by fatigue and 
want of food. 

Napoleon now turned upon the grand army, which he 
encountered at Arcis-sur-Aube ; but after an indecisive 
action, he deliberately retreated, not towards Paris, but in 
the direction of the Rhine. His plan was to occupy the 
fortresses in the rear of the allies, form a junction with 
Auger eau, who was then defending Lyons, and, with the aid 
of a general rising of the peasantry in Alsace and Lorraine, 
surround and cut off the invaders, or, at least, compel them 
to retreat to the Bhine. But this plan being made known 
to the allies by an intercepted letter from Napoleon to the 
empress, they frustrated it by at once marching with flying 
banners upon Paris, leaving behind only 10,000 men under 
"Winzingerode, to amuse Napoleon, and mask their move- 
ment. After repulsing Mortier and Marmont, and capturing 
the forces under Pacthod and Amey, the allies defiled within 
sight of Paris on the 29th. On the 30th, they met with a 
spirited resistance on the heights of Belleville and Mont- 
martre ; but the city, in order to escape bombardment, 
capitulated during the night ; and on the 31st, the sovereigns 
of Russia and Prussia made a peaceful entry. The emperor 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. liil 

of Austria had remained at Lyons. Napoleon was compelled, 
on the 10th of April, to resign the imperial crown, and 
descend to the miniature sovereignty of the island of Elba. 
On the 4th of May, Louis XVIII. entered the capital of 
France, and mounted the throne of his ancestors ; and on 
the 30th of the same month, a general peace was concluded 
at Paris, by a treaty which reduced France to her limits as 
in 1792. 

Europe being now freed from her tyrant, a congress was 
assembled at Vienna in the autumn of 1814, to adjust the 
claims and mutual relations of the several states. This was 
a matter of great difficulty, and there seemed much pro- 
bability that the discordant victors would turn their swords 
against each other, until concord was perforce restored by the 
news that the common enemy was again in the field. 
Napoleon had quitted Elba, landed on the coast of France 
on the 1st of March, 1815, and in three weeks afterwards 
entered Paris, the whole nation receiving him with acclama- 
tion, not a single Frenchman shedding a drop of blood in 
defence of the house of Bourbon. The allied sovereigns, 
present in person or by their representatives at Vienna, at 
once declared Napoleon an outlaw, and bound themselves to 
bring a force of more than a million into the field against 
him. The first contingents brought forward were a mixed 
army of English, Dutch, Belgians, and Germans, under the 
duke of Wellington, and a Prussian force under Bliicher, 
both of which were encamped in Belgium. Napoleon crossed 
the frontier on the 14th of June, led the right wing of his 
army against Bliicher at Ligny on the 16th, and defeated 
him with great slaughter, the marshal himself being among 
the wounded and almost among the slain. On the same day, 
but with very different fortune, Ney, with the left wing of 
the French, encountered Wellington at Quatre Bras, and 
suffered a severe defeat. After this, the Prussians retreated 
to Wavre, pursued by 35,000 French under Grouchy, whilst 
Wellington, falling back on the position he had chosen near 
Waterloo, awaited the approach of Napoleon. In the stu- 
pendous battle of the 18th of June, the flower of the French 
soldiery perished in their desperate efforts against the obdu- 
rate valour of the British. The battle raged from noon until 



Uv HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

eight o'clock, with unexampled fury. Bliicher and his 
Prussians made gigantic efforts to reach the scene of action ; 
but, marching over ground rendered almost impassable by 
the heavy rains that had fallen, their main body did not 
arrive until the victory was already won. Then they under- 
took the pursuit, and prosecuted it with unrelenting vigour 
until nothing remained of the magnificent French army but 
a helpless mob of fugitives incapable of rallying again. 
Napoleon returned to Paris to abdicate a second time. Then 
failing in an attempt to escape to America, he surrendered to 
Captain Maitland, of his Britannic majesty's ship Bellerophon. 
With the concurrence of all the powers, he was conveyed, 
under the custody of the English, to the island of St. Helena, 
where he died on the 5th of May, 1821. His consort, Maria 
Louisa, was created duchess of Parma, and his son lived, 
under the title of duke of Reich stadt, with his imperial 
grandfather at Yienna, until his death in 1832. 

Meanwhile, Murat, Napoleon's brother-in-law, who had 
joined the allies against him after the battle of Leipsig, 
advanced into Upper Italy against the Austrians, upon the 
reappearance of the ex-emperor in France. Murat was de- 
feated at Tolentino and fled to Corsica, but his retreat to 
France being prevented by the success of the allies, he rashly 
returned to Italy with the design of raising a popular insur- 
rection, but was seized on landing, and shot on the 13th of 
October. 

In the new partition of Europe, arranged in the congress 
of Yienna, Austria received Lombardy and Yenice under the 
title of a Lombardo-Yenetian kingdom, the Illyrian provinces 
also as a kingdom, Yenetian Dalmatia, the Tirol, Yorarlberg, 
Salzburg, the Innviertel and Hausrucksviertel, and the part 
of Galicia ceded by her at an earlier period. Thus, after 
three-and-twenty years of war, the monarchy had gained a 
considerable accession of strength, having obtained in lieu of 
its remote and unprofitable possessions in the Netherlands, 
territories which consolidated its power in Italy, and made 
it as great in extent as it had been in the days of Charles YL, 
and far more compact and defensible. The grand duchies 
of Modena, Parma, and Placentia, were moreover restored 
to the collateral branches of the house of Habsburg. 



THE HOLY ALLIANCE. lv 

The ancient German empire was replaced by a German 
confederation, composed of thirty-nine states ; and a per- 
manent Diet, consisting of plenipotentiaries from the several 
states, was established at Frankfort on the Maine, Austria 
holding the permanent presidency. 



CHAPTER YI. 

From the Congress of Vienna, 1815, to the Revolution o/1848. 

The wars which, with little intermission, filled the first 
three-and-twenty years of the reign of the Emperor Francis, 
were in the main a struggle for national independence. On 
their first invasion of France, Austria and her allies declared 
their intention to quell the revolutionary spirit, and to up- 
hold the cause of hereditary monarchy ; but having failed in 
the attempt, they soon abandoned, tacitly at first, and after- 
wards in express terms, all pretensions to interfere in the 
domestic concerns of an independent state, or to prescribe 
its form of government. They fought against French 
aggression, not for abstract ideas, but in defence of their own 
rights and territories. After the last fall of Napoleon, how- 
ever, the great powers of the continent reverted to their 
original policy, and constituted themselves the champions of 
the principle of absolute monarchy. The maintenance of 
that principle ultimately became the chief object of the so- 
called Holy Alliance established in 1816 between Russia, 
Austria, and Prussia, and was pursued with remarkable 
steadfastness by the Emperor Francis and his minister, 
Prince Metternich. 

The determination to resist all demands for constitutional 
rights, both in their own dominions and in every continental 
state, was then an after-thought of the allied sovereigns, 
who had previously made very liberal professions, and 
apparently with perfect sincerity. The treaty of alliance 
concluded at Chaumont in 1814 between Austria, Russia, 
England, and Prussia, contained the following declaration : — 
"The sovereigns recognise as the fundamental principle of 
the high compact now existing between them the unalterable 



lvi HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

resolution, neither in their own reciprocal concerns, nor in 
their relations with other powers, to depart from the strictest 
obedience to the maxims of popular right ; because the con- 
stant application of these maxims to a permanent state of 
peace affords the only effectual guarantee for the independ- 
ence of each separate power, and the security of the whole 
confederation." In the early part of the first Congress of 
Vienna, Austria declared that " the subjects of every German 
state under the ancient empire possessed rights against their 
sovereign which had of late been disregarded, but that such 
disregard must be rendered impossible for the future ;" 
Prussia deliberately proposed a scheme of almost the same 
constitution, which, thirty two years after, was revived by 
the present king ; and Austria, Prussia, and Hanover con- 
curred in placing on record a note (November 16, 1814), in 
which was maintained the necessity of introducing uni- 
versally Constitutional Estates, and giving them a voice in 
questions of " taxation, public expenditures, the redress 
of public grievances, and general legislation." 

Such was the disposition of the leading members of the 
German Confederation immediately after the first treaty of 
Paris ; but the events of the hundred days appear to have 
produced a total change in their views. When the Congress 
of Yienna resumed its sittings after that period, the question 
of constitutional rights underwent a discussion of four 
weeks, and the result, effected chiefly through the influence 
of Austria, was the concise expression of the thirteenth 
article of the Confederation, viz. " A Representative Consti- 
tution shall be adopted in all the federative states," — a phrase 
which committed its authors to no very definite issue, and of 
which the true meaning has been to this day a subject of 
dispute. Thenceforth it became the avowed policy of the 
chief sovereigns of Germany to maintain the rights of 
dynasties in an adverse sense to those of their subjects. 
The people, on the other hand, deeply resented the breach of 
those promises which had been so lavishly made to them on 
the general summons to the war of liberation. Disaffection 
took the place of that enthusiastic loyalty with which they 
had bled and suffered for their native princes ; the secret 
societies, formed with the concurrence of their rulers, for tha 



DESPOTISM AND REVOLUTION. lvii 

purpose of throwing off the yoke of the foreigner, became 
ready instruments of sedition ; and Germany has ever since 
been possessed by a revolutionary spirit, working through 
hidden ways inscrutable to the police, compressible only by 
an enormous preponderance of military force, and always 
ready to break forth with devastating violence whenever that 
pressure is removed. 

The antagonism thus briefly indicated constitutes the 
dominant fact in the history of Austria, and of every German 
state, during the last forty years. Its nature is thus por- 
trayed by the philosophical historian Niebuhr, as reported by 
the Chevalier Bunsen : — 

" Europe is threatened with great dangers, and with the 
loss of all that is noble and great, by two opposite but con- 
spiring elements of destruction — despotism and revolution ; 
both in their most mischievous forms. As to the former, 
the modern state despotism, established by Louis XI V., 
promoted by the French Revolution, and carried out to 
memorable perfection by Napoleon, and those governments 
which have adopted his system, after having combated its 
author, is more enslaving and deadening than any preceding 
form ; for it is civilised and systematised, and besides the 
military force, has two engines unknown to the ancient 
world or to the middle ages. These are, first, the modern 
state-government, founded upon a police force, which has 
degenerated into a gigantic spy system ; and secondly, a 
thoroughly organised and centralised bureaucracy, which 
allows of no indej)endent will and action in the country. So 
likewise modern revolution is more destructive of political 
life and the elements of liberty, than similar movements in 
former ages \ for it is a merely negative, and at the same 
time systematic reaction against the ancient regime, of which 
it made the despotic part universal by carrying out uni- 
formity, and by autocratic interference in the name of the 
state ; whereas it gives no equivalent for the real, although 
imperfect liberties, which the old system contained in the 
form of privileges ; and in condemning such privileges under 
the sanction of democracy, it destroyed the basis of liberty 
under the pretext of sovereignty."* 

* Life and Letters of B. G. Niebuhr, vol. iii. 



lviii HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

In the winter of 1819, a German federative congress 
assembled at Vienna. In May of the following year, it pub- 
lished an act containing closer definitions of the Federative 
Act, having for their essential objects the exclusion of the 
various provincial Diets from all positive interference in the 
general affairs of Germany, and an increase of the power of 
the princes over their respective Diets, by a guarantee of aid 
on the part of the confederates. 

During the sitting of this congress, on New Year's Day, 
1820, the liberal party in Spain revolted against their un- 
grateful sovereign, Ferdinand VII., who exercised the most 
fearful tyranny over the nation that had remained faithful 
to him in his adversity. This example was shortly after- 
wards followed by the Neapolitans, who were also dissatisfied 
with the conduct of their sovereign. Prince Metternich 
immediately convoked a congress at Troppau. The Czar 
Alexander, who had views upon the east, and was no stranger 
to the designs of the party who were preparing a revolution 
in Greece against the Turks, was at first unwilling to give 
his consent unconditionally to the interference of Austria ; 
but on being, in 1821, informed, to his great surprise, by 
Prince Metternich, of the existence of a revolutionary spirit 
in one of the regiments of the Russian guard, he freely 
assented to all the measures proposed by that minister. The 
new congress, held at Laibach in 1821, was followed by the 
entrance of the Austrians under Frimont into Italy. The 
Neapolitans fled without firing a shot, and the Piedmontese, 
who unexpectedly revolted in Frimont's rear, were, after a 
short encounter with the Austrians under Bubna at Novara, 
defeated, and reduced to submission. Meanwhile, the Greeks 
had risen in open insurrection against the long and cruel 
tyranny of the Turks ; but Russia now no longer ventured 
openly to uphold them, and the influence of Austria was 
successfully exerted against them at the Congress of Verona 
in 1822. Notwithstanding the professedly Christian spirit 
of the Holy Alliance, and the political advantages which 
would accrue to one at least of its members from the sub- 
version of the Turkish empire, the revolt of the Greeks wa& 
treated as rebellion against the legitimate authority of the 
Porte, and was strongly discouraged. On the same grounds, 



AFFAIRS OF TURKEY. iix 

it was decided that a French army should be despatched into 
Spain to reinstate Ferdinand, in his legitimate tyranny, and 
this was accomplished in 1823. The Duke of Wellington, 
who represented England at the Congress of Yerona, pro- 
tested, in the name of his government, against this violation 
of the constitutional rights of Spain; the protest was dis-' 
regarded, and Portugal would have been likewise coerced, 
but for the landing of a protecting English force upon its 
shores. 

The establishment of the kingdom of Greece in 1827, under 
the protection of England, France, and Russia, was regarded 
with no favourable eye by Austria ; but she did not interfere 
with the proceedings of the other powers, nor was the 
harmony between her and Russia disturbed until the invasion 
of Turkey by the latter had excited her alarm. In 1828, 
England and Austria peremptorily intervened to prevent the 
impending fall of Constantinople. France expressed her 
readiness to unite with Russia, and to fall upon the Austrian 
rear in case troops were sent against the Russians. Prussia, 
however, presented herself as a mediator, and a treaty was 
concluded at Adrianople in 1829, by which Russia, though 
compelled for the time to restore the booty already seized, 
gained some considerable advantages, being granted possession 
of several of the most important mountain fastnesses and 
passes of Asia Minor, a right to occupy and fortify the 
mouths of the Danube, so important to Austria, and a pro- 
tectoral authority over Moldavia and Wallachia. 

The piratical seizure of an Austrian trading brig in 1828 
occasioned a petty war with Morocco, and the appearance of 
an Austrian fleet in the Mediterranean. Satisfaction was 
obtained, and peace was concluded at Gibraltar in 1830. 

The commotions that pervaded Europe after the French 
Revolution of 1830, affected Austria only in her Italian 
dominions, and there but indirectly, for the imperial authority 
remained undisputed in the Lombardo- Venetian kingdom. 
But the duke of Modena and the archduke of Parma were 
obliged to quit those states, and a formidable insurrection 
broke out in the territory of the Church. An Austrian 
army of 18,000 men quickly put down the insurgents, who 
rose again, however, as soon as it was withdrawn. The pope 



lx HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

again invoked the aid of Austria, whose troops entered 
Bologna in January, 1832, and established themselves there 
in garrison. Upon this, the French immediately sent a 
force to occupy Ancona, and for a while a renewal of the 
oft-repeated conflict between Austria and France on Italian 
ground seemed inevitable ; but it soon appeared that France 
was not prepared to support the revolutionary party in the 
pope's dominions, and that danger passed away. The French 
remained for some years in Ancona, and the Austrians in 
Bologna and other towns of Bomagna. This was the last 
important incident in the foreign affairs of Austria previous 
to the death of the Emperor Francis L, on the 2nd of March, 
1835, after a reign of forty-three years. 

During the last twenty years of Francis I., and the whole 
reign of his successor, the care of the government was 
directed with assiduity, and with no inconsiderable success, 
towards improvements in the industrial resources of the 
empire. Two great companies were formed for the conduct 
of steam navigation, the one operating from Linz on the 
Danube to the Black Sea, the other, the Austrian Lloyds, 
effecting communication between Triest and Egypt, Asia 
Minor and Constantinople. The state planned a net-work 
of railways, extending over the whole empire, and undertook 
the construction of a railway from Triest to the Saxon and 
Prussian frontiers. A private company began the railway 
from Milan to Venice, and being favoured with extraordinary 
aid from the government, was enabled to complete the 
colossal viaduct across the lagunes, connecting Venice with 
the main land. Other important undertakings, supported 
by private capital, are, the railway from Debreczin to Pesth, 
and the noble chain-bridge over the Danube between Pesth 
and Buda. But the solicitude of the Austrian govern- 
ment for the material welfare of the people was in a great 
degree neutralised by the erroneous policy which almost 
prohibited commercial intercourse with foreign countries, 
and even between Austria and Hungary. .In 1838, however, 
a commercial treaty was concluded between Austria and 
England, by which the Danube was freely opened to British 
vessels as far as Galatz, and all British ports, including Malta 
and Gibraltar, as freely to Austrian vessels. 



FERDINAND I. lxi 

The Emperor Francis was succeeded by his son, Ferdi- 
nand I., whose accession occasioned no change in the political or 
administrative system of the empire. Incapacitated, by 
physical and mental infirmity, from labouring as his father 
had done in the business of the state, the new monarch left 
to Prince Metternich a much more unrestricted power than 
that minister had wielded in the preceding reign. One happy 
effect of this circumstance was seen in the general amnesty 
granted to political offenders on the occasion of Ferdinand's 
coronation in Milan, in 1838. Perfectly in unison as Francis 
and Metternich had always been as to their political views, 
no two men were ever more unlike in the disposition they 
evinced towards offenders against their common system. The 
homely good-nature of " Father Francis," as his petted 
Viennese delighted to call him, gave place to barbarous vin- 
dictiveness against all who sinned against his political creed. 
The larger mind of the minister was incapable of this 
fanaticism. He was averse to all extreme measures, and 
particularly opposed to shedding human blood. No political 
executions ever took place at his instance. Francis himself 
has been heard to say, " In pardoning, I am a bad Christian ; 
it is too hard for me ; Metternich is much more com- 
passionate." 

Once only during the reign of the Emperor Ferdinand did 
the foreign relations of Austria assume a threatening appear- 
ance. War had broken out, in 1839, between the Sultan 01 
Turkey and his powerful vassal, the Pasha of Egypt, whose 
son, Ibrahim Pasha, wrested Syria from the Porte, and over- 
ran Asia Minor, and threatened the very existence of the 
empire. The five powers — England, France, Russia, Prussia, 
and Austria — interfered. While their envoys consulted in 
London, the French and English fleets cruised in the Levant- 
to keep the truce. The case was now much perplexed by 
the Turkish admiral having carried his ships to Alexandria, 
and put them into the power of the Pasha. A strong sus- 
picion was entertained that the French government encou- 
raged the Pasha to retain this fleet, when he would otherwise 
have given it up. The four other powers demanded its sur- 
render by a certain day, and this not having been done, they 
signed a convention on the 15th of July, to the exclusion of 

e 



Ixii HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

France. That power was jealous, and remonstrated through 
her minister, M. Guizot ; and war seemed imminent in 
Europe. The only way to prevent it was to extinguish the 
war in the Levant by a sudden blow before the conflagration 
spread farther ; and this was done by the British fleet, aided 
by a few Austrian ships. They blockaded Alexandria and 
the Syrian ports ; and in September they bombarded 
Beyrout. The Egyptians lost ground everywhere ; and in 
November Acre fell before the attacks of the allied squadrons. 
Jerusalem returned to its allegiance to the Porte ; and the 
Egyptians had no other hope than that of getting back to the 
Nile with the remnant of their force : Mohammed Ali de- 
livered up the Turkish fleet, resigned his pretensions to 
Syria, and in return received the firman, which gave the 
dominion of Egypt to himself and his heirs. A change of 
ministry took place in France, and peace was preserved. 

The province of Galicia began early in the new reign to 
occasion uneasiness to the government. The Congress of 
Vienna had constituted the city of Cracow an independent 
republic — a futile representative of that Polish nationality 
which had once extended from the Baltic to the Black Sea. 
After the failure of the Polish insurrection of 1831 against 
Russia, Cracow became the focus of fresh conspiracies, to 
put an end to which, the city was occupied by a mixed force 
of Russians, Prussians, and Austrians ; the two former were 
soon withdrawn, but the latter remained until 1840. "When 
they also had retired, the Polish propaganda was renewed with 
considerable effect. An insurrection broke out in Galicia in 
1846, when the scantiness of the Austrian military force in 
the province seemed to promise it success. It failed, how- 
ever, as all previous efforts of the Polish patriots had failed, 
because it rested on no basis of popular sympathy. The 
nationality for which they contended had ever been of an 
oligarchical pattern, hostile to the freedom of the middle and 
lower classes. The Galician peasants had no mind to ex- 
change the yoke of Austria, which pressed lightly upon them, 
for the feudal oppression of the Polish nobles. They turned 
upon the insurgents, and slew or took them prisoners, the 
police inciting them to the work, by publicly offering a reward 
of five florins for every suspected person delivered up by them 



xVffairs of italy. 1846 — 8. lxiii 

alive or dead. Thus the agents of a civilized government 
became the avowed instigators of an inhuman jacquerie. The 
houses of the landed proprietors were sacked by the peasants, 
their inmates were tortured and murdered, and bloody 
anarchy raged throughout the land in the prostituted name 
of loyalty. The Austrian troops at last restored order ; but 
Szela, the leader of the sanguinary marauders, was thanked 
and highly rewarded in the name of his sovereign. 

In the same year the three protecting powers, Austria, 
Russia, and Prussia, took possession of Cracow, and ignoring 
the rights of the other parties to the treaty of Yienna to 
concern themselves about the fate of the republic, they 
announced that its independence was annulled, and that the 
city and territory of Cracow were annexed to, and for ever 
incorporated with, the Austrian monarchy. 

From this time forth the political atmosphere of Europe 
became more and more loaded with the presages of the 
storm that burst in 1848. It was the Italian quarter of the 
horizon that first attracted the anxious gaze of statesmen. 
For more than thirty years after the final settlement of 
Europe by the treaty of Yienna, Austria exercised a per- 
emptory control over the affairs of all Italy. From every 
sovereign of that country she exacted the strictest main- 
tenance of the established order of things in his own 
dominions ; and hence she became for all Italian malcontents 
the object of their supreme enmity, the common cause to 
which they ascribed all their political and social grievances. 
Agreeing in little else, they were unanimous in hating their 
northern masters ; and gradually this communion in hatred 
led them to fix their desires also upon one common object, 
the achievement of Italian nationality. But they looked 
upon Austria with no less dread than aversion, and plainly 
acknowledged to themselves the impossibility of coping with 
her in arms. They busied themselves only with conspiracies 
to harass and annoy the Italian sovereigns, her subordinates. 
" During these last thirty years," says one of the most 
judicious Italian writers of the present day,* " the Italians 
had only been feeling their way. They cared very little, and 

* Mariotti, Italy in 184S. 

e2 



lxiv HISTORY OP AUSTRIA. 

understood even less, about the representative forms of 
Transalpine freedom. The thorn in their side was plainly 
the foreigner. They tried him by indirect attacks, by a 
feint upon the Bourbon, or the Pope, at Naples, at Rome, at 
Turin. Before they were fairly on their guard, down he 
came upon them ; and this ubiquity of the Austrian, this 
promptness and decision of his movements, this omnipresence 
and omnipotence, ought, if anything, to have, as it actually 
had, the effect of simplifying the question and identifying 
Italian interests." 

Ever preluding a levy of bucklers against Austria, but 
ever indefinitely postponing the moment of action, Italy was 
prematurely overtaken in the midst of her preparations by 
the fair-seeming but fallacious opportunity of 1848. Shortly 
before that period, the Italians had become conscious from 
fatal experience of the total inefficiency of secret conspiracies 
and violent measures, and they had adopted a more cautious 
and discreet policy, the watchword of which was "con- 
ciliation, union, and moral force." This change of conduct 
led to concessions on the part of the princes, the first 
example of which was given by Charles Albert of Sardinia, 
to whom the foreign yoke was even more galling than to the 
meanest of his subjects. Some trivial differences with the 
imperial government in 184G, on the subject of railways, 
and about some matters of custom and finance, afforded him 
a pretext for repudiating the dictation of Austria, and 
assuming the tone and attitude of an independent sovereign. 
This beginning was dexterously improved by the leaders of 
the national party, and three more of the principal Italian 
monarchs — the grand duke of Tuscany, the pope, and the 
king of the Two Sicilies — were brought by clever manage- 
ment to adopt, with more or less reluctance, a course opposed 
to the wishes of their imperial protector. 

Italy was now fairly launched in what was vaguely called 
" the way of progress," and which simply meant, rebellion 
against Austria. A peculiar significance was attached to the 
mustering of the Italians in literary and scientific associations. 
A trade and customs' union was largely discussed, and* was 
finally concluded at Turin on the 3rd of November, 1847. 
After the accession of Naples, it seemed an easy step to con- 



AFFAIRS OF ITALY. 1847. lxv 

vert that merely commercial agreement into a political com- 
pact, an offensive and defensive alliance ; but this was not 
attempted until after the declaration of war in April and 
May, 1848, when it was too late. 

Austria was by no means indifferent to these tokens ; she 
resolved to surprise the Italians in the midst of their too- 
leisurely deliberations ; but in the execution of that purpose, 
she forgot her usual discretion, and made a false move, which 
she was constrained to retract with discredit. She struck 
the first blow and failed. Upon the publication of the pope's 
decree of July 6, 1847, for the organization of a civic guard, 
the Austrian garrison in the citadel of Ferrara marched 
into the town, and took possession of it. Against this 
violation of his territory, the pope protested in what the 
friends of Austria called at the time "unusual and in- 
temperate language," but the act which had provoked it was 
condemned by the whole civilized world, and Austria felt the 
expediency of amicably revoking the step she had taken, and 
withdrawing her troops within the citadel. # She had put 
herself so palpably in the wrong on her first aggression, as to 
make it difficult for her to venture soon upon au other 
attempt of the same kind • and so conscious was she of her 
false position, that she tacitly abdicated the high protectorate 
she had been used to exercise over the minor Italian states, 
and even refused the benefit of her advice to the sovereigns 
of Lucca and Tuscany in their perplexities. It was fortunate 
for her that she had not to do with a pope like Julius II. to 
head a national crusade, which would have leagued all Italy 
against her* As it was, she was compelled to endure, at the 
hands of Pius IX. and his minister, Cardinal Ferretti, a flat 
and harsh refusal of a free passage to the troops she con- 
templated sending to the succour of her Neapolitan ally. 
Never was Austrian influence in Italian affairs at a lower 

* " It was the dread of innovation that prompted the occupation of 
Ferrara, — a measure in our opinion precipitate and impolitic ; the 
dominions of the pope should have been held sacred from invasion ; and 
the pretences, too, by which the measure is excused, are most frivolous." 
— Quarterly Review, Dec. 1847. " Had the pope declared war on 
Austria at the time of the occupation of Ferrara, a pretext had at least 
been afforded." — Ibid. June, 1848. 



lxvi HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

ebb since the coronation of Charles Y. in 1530. Modena 
and Parma alone adhered to her unreservedly ; even Naples 
was wavering in its attachment. 

"Up to the very opening of the year 1848, the Italians 
had proved themselves tolerably shrewd and skilful tacticians. 
They had won their ground upon the enemy without afford- 
ing him an opportunity — a good reason at least — for un- 
sheathing his sword. They had fairly kept on their own 
ground ; given no alarm to the anxious guardians of European 
order. They had in fact listened to them ; to a certain 
extent, acted by their advice." * Lord Palmerston displayed 
great zeal for the independence of the Italian states, 
frequently remonstrated on their behalf with the Austrian 
cabinet, encouraged the Italian princes to adopt reform as 
a preventive against revolution, and gave his unflinching 
support to Sardinia up to the declaration of hostilities 
against Austria. Lord Minto, the father-in-law of the 
English premier, and himself a minister, was sent on a 
mission to aid the Italians with his counsels in the pro- 
secution of their "bloodless revolution." The policy of 
France towards Italy during the years 1846 and 1847, 
agreed in the main with that of England. Thus everything 
favoured the hopes of the Italians, and tended to make 
Austria's position in the peninsula increasingly precarious. 
But that condition of things was reversed in a most un- 
expected manner. Events which portended nothing less 
than the dissolution of the Austrian monarchy, proved the 
means of consolidating its power and restoring its lost in- 
fluence. " All the Italians wanted was time, and this was 
not given them. The success of their enterprise rested on 
their consciousness of the magnitude of its difficulties, and 
fortune made it appear portentously easy." The temptation 
offered by the Yienna catastrophe of March, 1848, lured the 
Italian patriots to their ruin. 

* Mariotti. 



march, 1848. lxvii 

CHAPTER TIL 

"The Revolution of 1848, from March to September. 

The revolution in Yienna began on the 13th of March, 
on the occasion of the opening of the States for Lower Austria. 
The business of the day had not proceeded more than half 
an hour, when a mob, headed by the students of the univer- 
sity, forced their way into the hall, clamouring for reform. 
The members of the assembly at once concurred in the de- 
mands of the populace, and agreed to march at its head to 
the palace, where a cabinet council had meanwhile been 
summoned. It was twelve o'clock when this strange pro- 
cession set out, and at four o'clock it had not yet returned with 
an answer. The people became exasperated by this delay ; 
the students harangued them, and the tumult increased con- 
tinually. The young Archduke Albert, who commanded the 
garrison, attempted to disperse the mob by force ; but he was 
wholly unacquainted with street warfare, and his measures 
were so injudicious as only to augment the confusion, and 
disspirit the troops, who were drawn out but to be ex- 
hausted by fatigue and insult. No fighting took place, but 
a few shots were fired here and there, and about fifteen 
people were killed either by the bullets of the soldiers or by 
the pressure of the crowd. Further violence was for the 
moment prevented by the announcement that Prince Met- 
ternich had resigned, that the emperor had acceded to the 
popular demands, and had confided the keeping of the city 
to the students and citizens, who were all to receive arms. 
Two days afterwards an imperial patent was issued which 
embraced all the great concessions of liberty of the press, a 
national guard, and the immediate convocation of the estates 
of the realm with a view to the Constitution of Austria. 

"We pass rapidly over the events of March and the five fol- 
lowing months, since they are discussed at some length in the 
narrative at the end of this volume. On the 25th of April, 
Baron Pillersdorit, the new minister for the home depart- 
ment, promulgated a complete constitution on the Belgian 
model, which of course superseded the regular convocation 



lxvili HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

of the states promised on the 15th of March. This con- 
stitution existed for just twenty days, and perished in a 
street riot. On the 16th of May another imperial procla- 
mation was issued, convoking a constituent assembly, which 
was to consist of but one chamber ; and thus just two months 
had sufficed to bring the empire from the system of Prince 
Metternich to the verge of a Convention. On the same day, 
the emperor and his family secretly quitted the capital and 
retired to Innspruck. The ministers and the whole popula- 
tion of Yienna were thrown into consternation, and messen- 
gers were despatched with the most pressing entreaties to 
recall the fugitives, who obstinately rejected all such over- 
tures. Another insurrection took place in Yienna on the 
25th of May, in consequence of a report that three regiments 
were to enter the city at night. Barricades were erected, 
but there was no fighting, for the government purchased 
another instalment of repose by an abject concession ; and 
the result was the establishment of a " committee of citizens, 
national guards, and students of Yienna, for the mainte- 
nance of peace and order, and for the defence of the rights of 
the people." From that moment the whole power in Yienna 
was in the hands of this body, which was expressly declared 
to be independent of any other authority. 

On the 16th of June a proclamation appeared, by which 
the Archduke John was appointed the full representative or 
Alter Ego of the emperor, not only for the opening of the 
Diet, but for all the business of government. Besides this 
weighty task, others had been heaped upon him, each of 
which would have sufficed to employ the whole time and 
energy of a younger man. He was to represent the sovereign 
in Yienna ; he was to mediate between the Hungarians and 
Croatians, already on the brink of war ; and, on the 28th of 
June, he was elected vicegerent of the Germanic empire. 
In the two former capacities his exertions were without 
result, and shortly afterwards he withdrew altogether to 
Frankfort, where he still rendered an important service to 
Austrian interests, by maintaining that counterpoise against 
the growing ascendancy of Prussia, which Austria had, at 
that time, no other means of supporting in the councils of 
Germany. In consequence of these engagements; the formal 



BOMBARDMENT OF PRAGUE. lxix 

opening of the Diet was postponed until the 22nd of July. 
The Emperor returned to his capital on the 12th of August. 

In Bohemia the revolution ran a vehement, but very brief 
course. The Czechs, or Bohemians of the indigenous race, 
had long nurtured hopes of seeing the Austrian empire 
transformed into a great Sclavonic confederacy, from which 
the alien races should be excluded, or in which they should 
hold a position corresponding to their numerical inferiority. 
In March, a deputation from Prague presented a petition to 
the emperor, demanding popular representation on the 
broadest basis, and a responsible Bohemian ministry residing 
in Prague. This was granted on the 8th of April. The 
next step of the Czech leaders was to call upon all the 
Sclavonian provinces of the empire, " to appear by their 
representatives on the 31st of May in the ancient city of 
Prague, to take counsel for the interests of their race, and 
especially to counteract the absorbing influence of the Ger- 
manic body about to meet in Frankfort." Three hundred 
deputies assembled at the appointed time, and, as if the more 
to exasperate the Germans, the opening of the congress was 
accompanied by the establishment of a provisional govern- 
ment in Prague, the pretext for which had been furnished 
by the events of the 26th of May, which seemed to show 
that the Viennese ministry were captives in the hands of 
insurgents. On this ground the burgrave, Count Leo Thun, 
created a council of regency in direct correspondence with 
the emperor. Of the thirteen members of this government, 
two only were Germans. 

Opened on the 2nd of June, the congress was abruptly 
closed on the 12th. The Viennese government could not 
pardon the slight put upon it by the provisional government 
of Bohemia, and it declared that body to be illegal, and its 
acts null and void. This challenge was answered, as pro- 
bably it was intended that it should be, by an insurrection 
which raged for five days, ending on the 17th of June ; nor 
was it put down until Prince Windischgratz, the Austrian 
commander, had bombarded the town from the adjacent 
heights, and laid much of it in ruins. Prague relapsed into 
its former state of dependence on Vienna ; the Sclavonic con- 
gress was dispersed ; and even the Bohemian Diet, which was 



1XX HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

to have opened on the 18th of June, was indefinitely post- 
poned. The tranquillity of Prague was never afterwards 
disturbed ; and in the subsequent debates of the Diet at 
Vienna and Kremsier, the Bohemian party formed the 
nucleus of the right, or conservative section of the chamber. 

On the 15th of March the king of Hungary received a 
deputation of 250 Hungarian gentlemen, headed by the 
Palatine, Archduke Stephen, and bearing an address voted 
by the Diet then sitting in Presburg. Dismissed from the 
monarch's presence with a full assent to their requests, the 
deputation returned home; and so energetically did the 
Diet avail itself of the powers conceded to it, that in less 
than a month all the reforms of the liberal party passed into 
law by common consent, and the improved constitution of 
the kingdom was established. Instead of the Aulic Chancery, 
a responsible ministry for Hungary was instituted under the 
presidency of Count Louis Batthyany, with Kossuth in the 
department of finance. All classes and races throughout 
Hungary, Transylvania, Sclavonia, and Croatia, were equalized 
before the law ; and universal religious toleration was decreed, 
with one exception in favour of the Roman Catholic province 
of Croatia, whose former law, forbidding Protestants to settle 
in that country, was suffered to remain unaltered. The 
censorship of the press was abolished. The national guard 
was established. A general taxation was introduced. The 
mode of election was improved. The robot or labour service 
due by the peasantry to their landlords was abolished; the 
former were made free proprietors of the land they had 
held as hereditary tenants, and the latter were to be 
indemnified by the nation. Lastly, the union of Transyl- 
vania with Hungary was mutually decreed ; and, on the 
11th of April, the king came down in person and ratified 
all these laws by oath. The Diet was then dissolved, and a 
new one summoned to meet at Pesth in July. 

With unbounded satisfaction the Hungarians regarded the 
happy destinies thus apparently secured to them ; but now 
new difficulties arose out of those animosities of race which 
had been fostered by the immemorial policy of the house of 
Habsburg, and which the Hungarian government took no 
adequate pains to allay. Not one of the Croatian leaders 



THE CROAT INSURRECTION. lxxi 

was admitted into the ministry, or into any of the higher 
offices of state. This alone would have served to quench the 
movement which had begun in Croatia in union with that 
of Hungary. Austrian intrigue was not slow to avail itself 
of this and other errors. Croats, Servians, and Wallachs 
were incited by delusive promises, by hopes of plunder, and 
by the instigations of their Greek and Homish priests in 
Viennese pay, to wage civil war in defence of their emperor 
and their religion, both which they were assured were 
threatened by the rebellious and heretical Hungarians. 
Jellachich, the Ban of Croatia, openly organised a revolt 
against the lawfully constituted government of Hungary. 
He was summoned to appear before the emperor at Inn- 
spruck to account for his conduct, and on his refusal to obey 
the summons, Ferdinand issued a decree on the 10th of 
June, by which the contumacious Ban was declared a rebel, 
and the Hungarian Diet was exhorted to raise an army 
against him. The king, however, always avoided giving his 
final sanction to the bills passed for that purpose. Mean- 
while, Radetzki had defeated Charles Albert. Jellachich 
threw off the mask which his countrymen alone had been 
too blind to penetrate, and announced to Batthyany that 
there should be no peace until a ministry at Vienna ruled 
over Hungary. 

The new diet was opened at Pesth on the 5th of July by 
the Palatine, Archduke Stephen, in the name of his majesty 
King Ferdinand V. The language in which he condemned 
the Croat insurrection was unequivocal. "The king," he 
said, " after having spontaneously sanctioned the laws voted 
by the Diet, has seen with grief that the agitators, especially 
in Croatia, have excited the inhabitants of different creeds 
and languages against each other. By harassing them with 
false rumours and idle terrors, they have been driven to 
resist laws which, they assumed, were not the free expression 
of his majesty's will. Some have gone further, and have 
averred that their resistance was made in the interest of the 
royal house, and with the knowledge and consent of his 
majesty. His majesty scorns such insinuations. The king 
and his royal family will at all times respect the laws and 
protect the liberties granted to his people." 



lxxii HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

So spoke publicly the emperor's kinsman and representa- 
tive, his Alter Ego. But in a letter to Vienna, dated 
March 24, 1848, that is to say, a few days after the grant of 
a separate ministry, this same person is found to have sug- 
gested three modes of destroying the Hungarian constitution : 
either to excite the peasants against the nobles, as in 
Galicia, and stand by whilst the parties slaughtered each 
other ; or to tamper with Batthyany's honesty ; or to invade 
and overpower Hungary by military force. A copy of this 
letter, in the archduke's hand- writing, was afterwards found 
among his papers when he fled from Pesth, and was officially 
published with all the necessary verifications. The Austrians 
have not ventured to deny its authenticity. 

In September, as the king would neither allow troops to 
be raised in Hungary, nor the Hungarian regiments to be 
recalled from Italy for home defence, a Hungarian deputation 
was sent to the Austrian Diet, but it was refused admittance 
by aid of the Sclavonic party. On the 2nd of that month, 
Latour, Austrian minister at war, solemnly disavowed in the 
Diet any connection with Jellachich's movement ; yet two 
days later, a royal ordinance (officially published in Croatia 
only), reinstated Jellachich in all his dignities : and he soon 
afterwards crossed the Drave to invade Hungary, with a well- 
appointed army, 65,000 strong. It was the duty of the 
Palatine, the Archduke Stephen, as supreme captain of all 
troops in Hungary, to lead the army against Jellachich. He 
proceeded to the neighbourhood of Lake Balaton, there re- 
viewed the troops, and then fled to Vienna without com- 
municating with the parliament. In this position, and as 
Jellachich openly showed the king's commission, Batthyany 
felt compelled to resign, since he knew not how to act by the 
king's command against the king's command. No successor 
was appointed, and the Hungarian Diet had no choice but to 
form a Committee for National Defence. To embarrass them 
in this, the king re-opened a negotiation with Batthyany 
(September 14), but still eluded any practical result by 
refusing to put down Jellachich. Meanwhile (September 1 6) 
despatches were intercepted, in which Jellachich thanked 
Latour for supplies of money and material of war. The 
Hungarian Diet published them officially, and distributed 



MURDER OF COUNT LAMBERG. lxxiii 

them by thousands. But Hungary was still unarmed, and 
Jellachich was burning, plundering, slaughteriug. Some 
idea of the conduct of his troops and their auxiliaries may 
be formed from the fact, that Mr. Fonblanque, the British 
consul-general at Belgrave, in Turkish Servia, where their 
plunder was disposed of, was obliged to complain to the 
prince of Servia of the disgusting spectacle offered in the 
market-place, where rings, still attached to the dissevered 
ears and fingers of women, were exhibited for sale, like fruits 
culled with the leaf to render them more tempting. 

The next move made in the emperor's name, professedly 
with a view to put an end to the civil war in Hungary, was 
to appoint Count Lamberg to take the command of the 
whole kingdom and its contending forces ; a step, it has been 
aptly said, about as hopeful and judicious as if Charles I. of 
England had appointed a generalissimo over the royal and 
parliamentary armies of his early wars, in the expectation of 
stopping the civil conflict by the simple issue of that com- 
mission. The Hungarian Diet immediately declared Lam- 
berg's appointment illegal, and himself a traitor if he 
attempted to act upon it. He persisted however, and, being 
recognised as he crossed the bridge at Pesth, he was mur- 
dered by the infuriated populace. 

By this time Kossuth's eloquence had assembled masses of 
volunteers, who, with the aid of only 3,000 regular troops, 
met and repulsed Jellachich at Sukoro (Sept. 29), and 
chased him out of their country. His rearguard of 12,000 
men, under Generals Phillipovitch and Both, was obliged to 
surrender twelve days afterwards, and 6,000 more were 
destroyed by the Hungarian levies at Kanischa. 



CHAPTEB VIII. 

Lombardo- Venetian War. — 1848-1849. 

Nowhere in Italy was hatred to the Austrian more 
intense or more universally cherished than in the Lombardo- 
Yenetian kingdom. Its people have published a long list of 
grievances in justification of that feeling. The panegyrists of 



1XX1V HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

Austria, on the other hand, assert that her administration 
" was more just and impartial, more provident ; above all 
things more passionless than that of any of the so-called 
independent Italian governments ; " and they accuse Lom- 
bardy and Venice of gross ingratitude and blindness to their 
own interests, in their relations with a paternal government, 
which treated them with such peculiar favour as excited the 
keenest jealousy of the other provinces of the empire. With- 
out entering into the merits of this controversy, it is enough 
for our present purposes to accept the cardinal fact alleged 
by the disputants on both sides — namely, that the Italian 
subjects of the empire hated its yoke. They hated it above 
all things because it was a foreign yoke, and for that reason 
alone they would have hated it, however slightly it had 
pressed their necks. Any aliment would have sufficed to 
feed the rancour of their passion ; but three things especially 
contributed to keep it fresh in their souls : these were, the 
swarms of Germans, Slavonians, and Tyrolese, who filled all 
civil offices to the exclusion of native functionaries, the very 
judges being often unacquainted with the language of the 
country, and discharging their office through interpreters ; 
and secondly and thirdly, those two main evils, for which 
Napoleon's rule had been held up to universal execration, 
— the inquisitional police and the conscription. 

The dread of Austria's power was stronger even than the 
hatred she inspired, and neither in Lombardy nor Venetia 
did any political outbreak occur from 1814 to 1848; but 
when the new system of " legal resistance" came in vogue 
throughout the peninsula, it was adopted in those provinces 
also, and prosecuted with great spirit. For two years Italy 
had fought with no other weapons than shouts of tc Viva 
Pio Nono !" the Lombards caught up the strain, they had 
a ' Pope's Hymn,' which did duty instead of a Marseillaise. 
With this they greeted their new pastor, Archbishop 
Pomilli, on his solemn entrance into his diocese on the 5th 
of September, 1847. The appointment of an Italian, after 
the decease of a German prelate, was hailed as a return to 
national principles. Austria was here forced to depart from 
that system of denationalization, which had included the 
very clergy. Romilli was an Italian, and came in the name 
of the Italian pontiff. The rejoicings, renewed on the 8th, 



LOMBARD Y AND VENICE IN 1847. lxXV 

and assuming a character of political demonstration that 
could not be overlooked, led to the first bloody collision. 
Remonstrances of a strictly legal kind followed. Lombardy, 
like most provinces of the empire, had a " constitution," 
granted by the Emperor Francis I., and grounded upon old 
local institutions. It had, however, been suffered to fall into 
almost total desuetude ; partly owing to the abuses and 
encroachments of the omnipotent police ; partly, also, owing 
to the indifference or stubbornness of the people, always 
determined " to spurn Austria and her gifts," always re- 
reluctant to incur the charge of complicity with her govern- 
ment even in the discharge of the most sacred duties. But 
now, a recourse to these national forms such as they were, 
suited the peculiar mood of the patriots of the day, and the 
whole country was astir with municipal meetings, commis- 
sions, &c, whose ostensible aim was merely to put into 
operation the constitution of 1816, and see how far Austria 
could be made amenable to her own laws and compacts. In 
Venice, Daniele Manin, an advocate, and Nicolo Tommaseo, 
a literary man, thought they could find, in the letter of that 
constitution, a sanction for the freedom of the press. Manin 
presented a petition to that effect in December, 1847, and 
Tommaseo read a paper to the same purpose before the 
Athenaeum ; both of them were arrested, and thrown into 
prison in the following month. 

The Austrians. at this critical moment, were still smarting 
under a sense of their blunder and discomfiture at Ferrara ; 
and, with a fatality common enough in private life, they fell 
from one error into another. They lost their temper just 
when they had most need of it, — lost the very quality by 
which they had, until then, prevailed over the more hasty 
and mercurial Italians. The latter, on the other hand, per- 
severed with growing zeal and complete unanimity on their 
peaceful line of policy, and soon found means to make it tell 
upon the government on its most vulnerable side. Calling 
to mind that the Americans had begun their successful 
struggle for independence by abstaining from the consump- 
tion of excisable articles, the Lombards, one and all, resolved 
to practise a total abstinence from tobacco, snuff, and the lot- 
tery, three monopolies from which the imperial government 
derived a very large revenue. But the populace, not con- 



lxxvi HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

tent with strictly keeping the national pledge themselves, 
attempted to enforce its universal observance by stopping all 
persons found smoking in the streets, and requiring them to 
desist from the forbidden indulgence. On the other hand, 
the Austrian soldiers, who had smoked before from incli- 
nation, now smoked the more to show their loyalty and 
their contempt for the Italians. Brawls, of course, ensued 
between the mob and the soldiers \ and the latter were 
officially reminded that they carried swords at their sides 
for use on provocation. The hint was not lost upon them. 
On the 3rd of January, a party of military rioters fell upon 
the defenceless crowd, killed eight persons and wounded fifty- 
three. Five days afterwards another military outrage was 
perpetrated at Pavia, and on this occasion two officers were 
prominent in the fray. Up to the year 1848 nothing could 
have been more admirable than the discipline of the Austrian 
army ; both officers and soldiers had borne the most con- 
temptuous treatment at the hands of a subjugated race, with 
a patience and forbearance that excited the astonishment of 
strangers ; but now a change had taken place in their habits, 
so sudden and complete, that it could only be accounted for 
by a change of orders. It seemed, indeed, the deliberate 
purpose of the cabinet of Vienna to goad the Lombards into 
open rebellion. It did all in its power to aggravate the 
existing evil by its uncourteous refusal to admit a Lombard 
deputation (Jan. 10) ; by its senseless proclamation, pre- 
cluding all hope of change (Jan. 17), and that in flat con- 
tradiction to the promises of redress solemnly given by 
Archduke Bainer only eight days before (Jan. 9) ; by 
Marshal Radetzki's intemperate order of the day (Jan. 15) ; 
by arbitrary arrests, proscriptions, and banishments of men, 
too often conspicuous for rank and character, in some in- 
stances perfectly innocent ; and finally, by that proclama- 
tion of martial law (Feb. 22, though bearing the date of 
Nov. 24, 1847), which, after the scenes of the two preceding 
months, seemed hardly needed to add to the unbridled 
licence of the soldiery. 

But all the high-handed efforts of Austria served only to 
strengthen the tacit compact between her Italian subjects, 
and to make them more obdurate in their passive resistance. 
Had this state of things been suffered to work out its own 



INSURRECTION OF MILAN. Ixxvii 

issues independently of extraneous causes, Austria must 
have submitted to make terms with the refractory provinces, 
unless she had it in her power to exterminate their popula- 
tion. But the February revolution of Paris led to a different 
solution of the problem. Had that event, indeed, been 
without results on central Europe, it would hardly have 
accelerated the Lombard movement. But when it became 
known that revolution had triumphed in the centre of the 
monarchy, that Vienna was without a government, and the 
great bond of Austrian unity was dissolved, the Milanese 
and Venetians could no longer restrain themselves. 

On the 18th of March, the day after this news had reached 
Milan, the municipal authorities, headed by the mayor, 
Casati, and accompanied by the archbishop, presented to 
the organs of the government assembled in the palace, peti- 
tions praying the installation of a municipal magistracy, the 
repeal of some severe laws, the liberation of political 
prisoners, the election of deputies, and the establishment of a 
national guard. The petitions were rejected, and thereupon 
the people stormed the palace. The guard was overpowered 
in a moment ; the governor, O'Donnell, was made prisoner ; 
and the tricolour flag was planted on the palace. Some 
Croats afterwards fired upon the people and killed five or 
six of them ; and this became the signal for a general rising. 
Marshal Badetzki ordered a battalion of Hungarians to 
seize the town-hall, where there were only three or four 
hundred citizens peacefully proceeding with the organisation 
of the civic guard. Unarmed as they were they ventured 
upon some show of resistance ; but the doors were forced 
open with cannon, and 300 prisoners were captured. 
The troops then scoured the broadest streets of the city, 
and kept possession of the viceregal palace, the cathedral, 
the town wall, and all the gates. But^the inhabitants had 
intrenched themselves behind lofty and solid barricades, 
intersecting that vast labyrinth of narrow and crooked streets 
and alleys, which harbours the densest population of Milan, 
and which it was not possible to take without a bombard- 
ment. Unwilling to have recourse to that extremity until 
he had communicated with Vienna, Badetzki acted only on 
the defensive. The conflict was kept up for ^.\e days. At 
last, on the evening of the 23rd, the insurgents succeeded in 

/ 



Ixxviii HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

seizing one gate and the houses covering it, and thus 
establishing a communication with their friends outside. 
Intelligence from Padua, Venice, and other points, showed 
that the whole country was in a state of revolt, and it 
became known that the king of Sardinia had crossed the 
frontier with a formidable army. Radetzki's position was 
no longer tenable, for Milan is a place of no military 
strength ; he therefore began, at once, his retreat in the 
direction of Yerona. Twelve hours afterwards it might, 
perhaps, have been too late. Even then great praise is due 
to the brave veteran for the order and conduct of his retro- 
grade march. Two brigades he had summoned to his aid 
on the first alarm, came up in this terrible juncture ; and 
with this seasonable reinforcement, in the face of a rising 
population, hotly pressed by the citizens, he was enabled to 
carry with him not only all his artillery, his prisoners, and 
hostages, but even his mutinous Italian soldiery, whom he 
had now to encompass with more devoted troops, and to 
spur on with German and Croatian bayonets. 

In 1847, and the beginning of 1848, the Austrian police 
had taken great pains to excite the Lombard peasants 
against their landlords, and the lower classes against the 
upper in the towns. Even after the events of March, 
Count Ficquelmont flattered himself that " it was always in 
the power of Austria to raise the Lombard peasantry 
against their superiors." * But the attempt failed wholly, 
the people expressing their contempt for it in this pointed 
sentence : — " The Gallician florin (the blood-money paid at 
Tarnow) shall not pass current inLombardy." The agricultural 
population rose en masse, and flocked towards Milan, armed 
with the muskets they had wrested from the surrounding 
garrisons, often under the captainship of their parish clergy. 
To such a pitch of daring had they worked themselves, as 
almost to venture to confront Radetzki at the head of all 
his host, on his retreat. They fell upon the Tyrolese rifle- 
men of his vanguard at Melignano, or Marignano, a small 
town on the road to Lodi, twelve miles from Milan ; they 
took prisoner the commanding officer, Count Wratislaw, 
and demanded the arms of the whole corps. The main body 

* Lord Ponsonby's Despatch, Vienna, April 2. 



EEVOLT OF VENICE. lxxix 

of the retreating army came up at this juncture ; the puny 
barricades reared by the rustics were forced with cannon, 
and the town delivered up to military execution. The 
aroused peasantry returned to the charge nevertheless. They 
harassed the enemy's rear ; they threw every obstacle in his 
way, by broken bridges, blocked-up thoroughfares, and 
flooded fields ; they fell on small detachments, couriers, and 
staff officers, and swelled the Manara and Ancioni legions, 
when these, after a short rest, set out in pursuit of the foe 
from the emancipated city. These swarms of irregular com- 
batants never lost sight of the Austrian, until the Pied- 
montese battalions came to take the contest upon them- 
selves. Not less than 30,000 of these rustic auxiliaries had 
entered Milan immediately after the gates had been forced 
open on the 22nd. So fatal had been the aim of the Swiss 
and Milanese rifles, both within and without the town, that 
Kadetzki is said to have lost, in the course of the five 
days, no less than 5,000 men, killed or taken prisoners ; 
and so many of his artillerymen had fallen at their guns, 
that at Montechiari, near Brescia, on the 30th, he is repre- 
sented as having barely H.Ye or six of that corps left to man 
the fifty or sixty cannon which he dragged along on his 
flight. The Milanese compute their loss in dead at 329. 

The revolt of Venice, like that of Milan, immediately 
followed the news of the revolution in Vienna. The Adriatic 
capital was lost, not from any show of desperate courage on 
the part of the people, but solely in consequence of the 
imbecility and utter cowardice of the civil and military 
governors of the place. On the morning of the 17th of 
March, the populace in St. Mark's Place, clamoured for the 
release of Manin and Tommaseo. Hardly waiting for a re- 
luctant assent, they forced open the prison doors, and bore 
forth their leaders in triumph. Collisions between the 
people and the German soldiery were inevitable, especially 
as the former were cheered on by the Italian grenadiers, who 
were eager to join them. On the 18th, a turbulent crowd, 
assembled in St. Mark's Place, was dispersed by a volley of 
musketry, which killed five and wounded as many of their 
number. Just enough blood had been shed to increase the 
commotion, but not to dismay the disaffected, and Count 
Palfy, the governor, became so alarmed, that he signed an 
/2 



1XXX HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

order for enrolling a civic guard, — an act equivalent to the 
abdication of Austrian authority in Venice. 

There was a lull during the next three days ; but mean- 
while a conspiracy was on foot, to aid which, the wildest and 
most extravagant reports were put in circulation : as that 
the city was to be bombarded, or destroyed by mines dug in 
various parts of it, or by rockets and other infernal devices, 
designed to multiply death and destruction ; and that all 
these diabolical schemes were the invention of Colonel Mari- 
novich, the commandant of the arsenal. It is an old proverb 
in Venice, that whoever is master of the arsenal is master 
of Venice. This the insurgents knew, and their measures 
were taken accordingly. Their plan was simple : first, a 
civic guard, as numerous and well informed as possible \ then 
its introduction either by stratagem or force into the arsenal, 
and all was accomplished. Marinovich was a man of much 
vigour and ability, but detested by the marines and workmen, 
who accused him of great harshness towards the people 
under him. Certain it is, that he had put an end to a very 
extensive system of pilfering which had long prevailed among 
them. He was murdered by the workmen on the 22nd, and 
on the evening of the same day, the civic guards, led by 
Manin, took possession of the arsenal. A party of the 
regiment of marines, which had orders to resist them, re- 
belled against their leader, Major Bodai, murdered him, and 
declared for the republic. Count Palfy immediately resigned 
the civil authority into the hands of the military commander, 
Count Zichy, who without delay signed a capitulation with 
the municipal authorities, by virtue of which, impregnable 
Venice, with all its fortresses by land and sea, with all the 
materiel of war, — 30,000 muskets, the military chest, with 
36,000,000 of Austrian lire (£1,200,000)— were given up to 
the insurgents. The Italian soldiers, nearly 4,000 men, were 
to remain in Venice ; the foreign part of the garrison, with 
three months' pay, to be sent by safe conveyance across the 
sea to Trieste. 

Even after the capitulation was signed, proof was not 
wanting of what might have been effected if the governors 
had possessed a grain of resolution. The Kinski regiment 
refused to lay down their arms ; gun-boats were brought up 
before their barracks to compel them; still they stubbornly 



THE AUSTEIAN FLEET. Ixxxi 

refused to submit to such an indignity ; and so late as the 
25th, they were only got rid of by a compliance with all 
their demands as to military honours. 

Thus Venice, almost by a miracle, had snatched from the 
cowardice of her foreign rulers, the freedom which her no 
less cowardly native rulers had tamely surrendered half a 
century before. The republic of St. Mark was revived ; the 
old standard was brought to light, the old war-cry revived. 
A provisional government was established, of which Manin 
had the presidency, with Tommaseo for his chief counsellor. 
But one unaccountable oversight had been committed : the 
Austrian fleet at Pola was lost, and with it the means of 
preventing a blockade of Venice. The disposition of mind 
of the Italian seamen on board the fleet, might be judged of 
from the conduct of the marines both in the harbour and the 
arsenal, and still more clearly from the acts of the men and 
officers on board an Austrian frigate stationed at Naples, and 
two brigs cruising in the Adriatic, who, on the first announce- 
ment of the Lombard movement, hoisted the national colours, 
and made sail for Venice. The provisional government made 
sure of the same result with the whole of the Austro- 
Italian fleet, and issued orders to that effect. But they put 
their despatches into the hands of the captain of a steamer, 
which was to convey the ex-governor Palfy, and other 
Austrian officers, to Trieste, in accordance with the capitula- 
tion. The captain's instructions were, that he should touch 
first at Pola, and deliver the important papers of which he 
was the bearer, to the fleet ; but he was compelled, as it 
appears, by his passengers to make for Trieste without delay. 
Thus his despatches fell into the hands of the Austrian 
authorities, who took the necessary measures at Pola, and 
had it in their power, by means of the land batteries, to keep 
the fleet in check, and secure, by main force, the allegiance 
of the mutinous crew. Only twenty-two officers were able 
to escape from Pola to Venice, where they arrived on the 
13th of April. 

Except in the strong fortresses of Verona, Mantua, and 
Peschiera, the Austrians retained no hold on any part of the 
Lombardo- Venetian kingdom. The dukes of Parma and 
Modena fled from their dominions, and all the other powers 
of Italy sent troops to aid the provisional government of 



1XXX11 HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

Milan. On the 22nd of March, the Sardinian minister 
officially assured the Austrian ambassador that he would "do 
all that depended upon him to insure the relations of amity 
and good-neighbourhood between the two states." On the 
very next day, the Sardinian troops entered Lombardy, and 
on the 30th, the main body, led by Charles Albert in person, 
arrived at Lodi. When the advanced guard reached Milan 
on the 27th, Radetzki was still within twenty-five 'miles of 
that city. Had Charles Albert made two or three forced 
marches, he might easily have prevented the concentration of 
the Austrian forces, and extinguished the war. Instead of 
this, he allowed Padetzki to pursue his march without 
molestation for a week, and take up an impregnable position 
under the walls of Yerona, within the triangle formed by 
that fortress, and the two other strongholds of Mantua and 
Peschiera. 

Delay was now the policy of the Austrian commander, 
to allow the arrival of General Welden, with 10,000 men, 
from the Tyrol, and General Count Nugent, with 30,000 
men, from the Friuli. There was apparently no impedi- 
ment to the approach of these reinforcements, for Radetzki, 
in his official despatch, at this time represents Charles 
Albert as "inactive at all points, and seeming to have 
neither the courage nor the power to act upon the offensive," 
though his best chance of success lay in assailing the 
Austrian army in detail, rather than waiting until con- 
centration should have made it invincible. Slight engage- 
ments took place almost daily between the advanced posts of 
either army, attended with alternate success ; but for ^rve 
weeks, the king of Sardinia never attempted to bring on a 
general battle. Meanwhile, Nugent and Welden pursued 
their operations without check, and by the 25th of June, 
the whole Venetian territory, with the exception of the 
capital, had been reconquered by Austria. 

On the 6th of May, Charles Albert insanely attacked 
Eadetzki in his impregnable position before Yerona, and was 
defeated with a loss of 1,500 men. On the 18th he laid 
siege to Peschiera, which surrendered on the 30th j but the 
advantage of this capture was more than counterbalanced 
by the junction of Nugent's army with that of Radetzki. 
Whilst the king of Sardinia was busy pushing his conquests 



VICENZA TAKEN BY RADETZKI. Ixxxiii 

farther north, along the shores of Lago di Garcia, Radetzki 
made an unexpected sortie from "Verona, and appeared before 
Yicenza with 30,000 men. General Durando, the com- 
mandant, capitulated, and entered into an engagement for 
himself and his troops, not to take up arms against Austria 
for three months. Thus the Piedmontese lost the aid of the 
Roman contingent ; the Neapolitan troops had previously 
been recalled in consequence of the events at home, in the 
month of May. 

On the same day (June. 10) when Badetzki signed the 
capitulation of Yicenza, Charles Albert affixed his signature 
to an act presented to him by the provisional government 
of Milan, for establishing the union of Lombardy to the 
kingdom of Sardinia. Already Austria had intimated her 
willingness to acquiesce in that arrangement. She had pro- 
posed a division of the country by the Mincio, retaining to 
herself the fortresses of Peschiera and Mantua, provided the 
Lombards would assume their portion of the public debt ; 
and she had invoked the mediation of England and Prance 
towards effecting a peace on that basis; but Lord Palmerston 
had refused the mediation on the part of England, on the 
ground that the terms offered by Austria were not liberal 
enough ; and the provisional government of Milan would 
accept no terms from Austria short of the entire surrender 
of the Yenetian territory also. 

Thinking that the Austrians were still before Yicenza, 
Oharles Albert marched against Yerona on the 12th of June; 
but already Radetzki had returned thither, and the Pied- 
montese were obliged to retire within their lines, where they 
relapsed into inaction. In the beginning of July, the Pied- 
montese army of 65,000 men occupied a line of about thirty 
miles in length, from near Mantua on its right, to Eivoli on 
its left. The head-quarters, which had been at Peschiera, 
were removed to Yallegio, and afterwards to Riverbella, and 
the strength of the army was gradually accumulated on the 
right wing, in order to invest Mantua, whilst the left wing- 
was most imprudently weakened. The lines of Rivoli were 
not defended by more than 3,000 troops, and those of Somma 
Oampagna, extending from Bussolongo, on the Upper Adige, 
to Yallegio, on the Mincio, by not more than 5,000. Padetzki 
meanwhile was preparing to seize the game which his un- 



lxxxiv HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

skilful antagonist was playing into his hands. Seeing that 
Charles Albert's whole attention was directed towards the 
south, he kept him in that disposition by well-contrived 
feints. A little victory gained by General Bava over 3,000 
or 4,000 Austrians at Governolo, near the junction of the 
Mincio and the Po, also contributed' to the same end, and 
filled the king and his army with fallacious hopes. But 
suddenly, on the 22nd of July, news arrived that the 
Austrians had been quietly passing the Upper Adige, at the 
foot of the mountain that overlooks Bivoli, and had already 
descended to La Corona, driving before them the few Pied- 
montese stationed there. Next day they pushed on from 
La Corona, and carried the plateau, and all the lines of 
Rivoli ; whilst another Austrian force, 25,000 strong, under 
General d'Aspre, assaulted the lines of Somma Campagna. 
Their 5,000 defenders made a gallant resistance, but the 
force of the assailants was overwhelming, and the Austrians 
regained the whole territory between the Upper Adige and 
the Lago di Garda and the Mincio, from the foot of Monte- 
baldo, and from Bussolongo to Vallegio, Peschiera being 
placed in a state of complete isolation. 

Getting together nearly 30,000 men, Charles Albert 
advanced, on the evening of the 25th, against the heights 
between Bussolongo and Yallegio. The decisive battle which 
was fought next day, bears the name of Somma Campagna, 
where the centre of the Austrian force was established. It 
lasted from five in the morning to five in the afternoon, the 
Piedmontese having at first the advantage of numbers, and 
fighting with desperate courage, until Badetzki brought up 
a reserve of nearly 20,000 men from Yerona, and obtained 
a complete victory. 

The retreat began on the following day, and on the 3rd of 
August Charles Albert arrived at Milan, where he culpably 
suffered the inhabitants to compromise themselves by erect- 
ing barricades, and making other futile preparations for a 
battle, which he promised to fight before the walls of the 
capital, whilst he was, at the same time, entering into a 
capitulation with Radetzki. When this fact became known 
in Milan, the excitement was intense, and it was not without 
difficulty that Charles Albert escaped with life from a city, 
whose inhabitants but a few weeks before had hailed him as 



CAMPAIGN OF NOVAEA. lxXXV 

their deliverer and cliosen sovereign. Kext day the Austrians 
marched into Milan, and Padetzki issued an address to his 
troops, in which he said, with just pride, " You have marched 
from victory to victory ; and, in the short space of a fort- 
night, advanced victoriously from the Adige to the Ticino. 
The imperial flag waves again from the walls of Milan, and 
no enemy any longer treads the Lombardian territory." 

On the 9th of August, an armistice was granted to the 
vanquished king by Marshal Badetzki, on as liberal terms as 
could have been expected, at a moment when there was no 
obstacle to the advance of the imperial forces to Turin, and 
their dictation, within the walls of that capital, of such a 
treaty of peace as would have severely punished their recent 
assailant, and thrown upon Sardinia the expenses of the war. 
The time of truce was spent by Charles Albert in preparing 
to renew, under the most adverse conditions, a struggle in 
which he had failed so wretchedly when favoured by so many 
conspiring circumstances. Agreeably to the stipulations 
entered into between the belligerents upon the close of the 
last campaign, notice was to be given of the denunciation of 
the armistice eight days before the recommencement of 
hostilities. The king of Sardinia having resolved to open 
the war on the 20th of March, 1849, the required notice was 
given on the 12th to Badetzki, who immediately issued an 
order of the day, concluding with the inspiring war-cry, 
"Forward, soldiers, to Turin !" 

Though the resumption of hostilities was more sudden 
than Radetzki had expected, he was far from being taken 
by surprise, as the cabinet of Turin had been led to believe. 
His measures were adopted with so much promptitude and 
secrecy, that, on the night of the 19th, five of the six corps 
composing the Austrian army in Italy, were concentrated 
round Pavia, ready to take the offensive the very moment 
the armistice should expire, whilst the people of Milan and 
the Piedmontese believed that he was retreating on the 
Adda. But his plan was to carry the war into Piedmont, 
and dictate a peace under the walls of Turin. At twelve 
o'clock on the 20th of March, the moment when the ar- 
mistice expired, the Austrians crossed the Ticino without 
encountering the slightest obstruction from the enemy ; for 
Ramorino, who commanded the Lombard division of Charles- 



lxxxvi HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

Albert's army, had disobeyed the orders given him to occupy 
La Cava, so as to be able to act in the direction of Pavia. 
On the following day an engagement took place at Mortara, in 
which two Piedmontese divisions were defeated with a 
loss of 600 men and five cannons. This disaster, and the 
advanced position of the Austrians, placed the Piedmontese 
army in such a perilous position as left its commander no 
choice but to fight a decisive battle at Novara on the 23rd. 
The Piedmontese were defeated beyond all possibility of 
recovery, and that night Charles Albert abdicated in favour 
of his son Victor Emmanuel. 

Next day an interview took place between Badetzki and 
the young king, and an armistice was concluded upon the 
following terms : occupation by 20,000 Austrians of the 
country between the Ticino and Sesia ; joint occupation 
with the Piedmontese of the fortress of Alessandria ; dis- 
banding of Hungarian, Lombard, and Polish troops in the 
service of Sardinia ; retirement of the Sardinian fleet from 
the Adriatic ; negotiations for a permament peace to be 
entered upon without delay. 

While these successes attended the Austrian arms in 
Piedmont, events of a different character were occurring in 
Lombardy. Brescia, the second city of the province, with 
40,000 inhabitants, having been left under the guard 
of only 500 men in the citadel, determined to rise 
and strike for independence. An ineffectual attempt was 
made to capture the citadel, and the insurgents were forced 
by the few troops in the neighbourhood to shut themselves 
lip in the town. General Haynau, in command of the troops 
then blockading Venice, arrived before Brescia on the 30th 
of March, with between 3,000 and 4,000 men. The gates 
of the city were captured without the discharge of a 
single gun ; but then, the contest commenced. A part of 
the town being in flames, the people endeavoured, in vain, 
to escape over the walls, and were driven into a corner 
between two of the gates, which was fired at all points, 
and where it is believed that great numbers of them 
were burned to death. But the massacre did not end with 
the combat, though it is stated in the official bulletin, that, 
when all resistance was over, " the bodies of the insurgents 
lay in heaps in the streets and houses." The most hideous 



SIEGE OF VENICE. lxxxvii 

incident of this terrible slaughter is reserved for the closing 
paragraph of General Haynau's bulletin : " All prisoners 
taken with arms in their hands were shot publicly." 

Brescia was now a heap of ruins j the district was mulcted 
to the amount of two millions of florins, and one million 
compensation money for the widows and orphans of the 
slain, the wounded and the troops engaged. 

Venice, which for a while had declared herself incorpo- 
rated with the prospective kingdom of Northern Italy, had 
resumed her republican character after the capitulation of 
Milan, and had elected Manin dictator. After the desertion 
of Naples, the Austrian occupation of Tuscany, the French 
occupation of Rome, and even after the total defeat of the 
Piedmontese at Novara, by which the Venetians were de- 
prived of the efficient aid of the Sardinian navy, they replied, 
on the 2nd of April, 1849, when summoned by Haynau to 
surrender, that they were resolved to resist " at any cost, 
and to the last." Yet they had no stores of provisions suf- 
ficient for a protracted siege, they were exceedingly in want 
of money, and any hopes they might have placed in foreign 
diplomacy were soon destroyed by the fate of their appeal 
addressed, on the 4th of April, to the governments of France 
and England. Both declined to offer a mediation which 
Austria would by no means accept at such a moment, and 
Lord Palmerston coupled his refusal with advice to make 
terms with Austria while it was yet possible. 

On the 4th of May, Marshal Badetzki arrived at the 
head-quarters of the besieging army, and immediately issued 
a proclamation, summoning the Venetians to surrender 
within forty- eight hours, and offering a general amnesty to 
all common soldiers and all subordinate officers of the army 
and navy, and permission to every one who might choose to 
do so, to leave the city either by land or water during the 
space of forty-eight hours after the capitulation. These 
terms being rejected, the siege was prosecuted with vigour, 
and an attack was begun on the fort of Malgherra, situated 
to the west of Venice, and at that time the only spot of the 
mainland in the possession of the Venetians. Though an 
ordinary fort of the third order, and feebly manned, yet so 
ably was it defended, that its reduction gave the besiegers 
full employment for three weeks. 



lxxxviii HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

Two mi*les of water still intervened between the Austrians 
and the devoted city, which their guns were unable to 
reach; whilst it was defended by the fortification on San 
Secundo and other islands, two batteries on the remains of 
the railway viaduct, several arches of which had been blown 
up, and by one hundred gun-boats, each carrying four guns. 
The bombardment began on the 15th, and the firing was kept 
up day and night, but with no great success, for the balls and 
bombs for the most part fell short. Vexed by the fruitless 
expenditure of an enormous amount of ammunition, the 
Austrians had recourse to the novel device of bombarding 
by means of balloons, five of which, each twenty-five feet in 
diameter, were constructed at Treviso. From the car 
attached to each balloon, five bombs were suspended by 
long isolated copper wires, one end of which was in commu- 
nication with a powerful galvanic battery placed on the 
shore. The balloon having been launched and carried 
by the wind in the required direction, the cutting of the 
wires would effect the double purpose of firing the fusees and 
detaching the bombs, which would then fall perpendicularly 
and explode on reaching the ground. By this means it was 
thought that twenty-five bombs a day might be thrown into 
the city when the wind was favourable. Experiments made 
previously at Treviso had succeeded completely ; but when 
the trial was made over the lagoons, on the 24th of June r 
with three balloons, it failed in consequence of a change in 
the wind after the balloons were discharged, and the bombs, 
instead of reaching the city, fell into the sea. 

Toward the end of July the incessant roar of cannon, 
which for thirty-two days and nights had sounded upon 
the ears of the Venetians, began gradually to subside ; lead- 
ing the besieged to conjecture that the enemy had aban- 
doned the idea of taking the city by storm, and had resolved 
to rely for its reduction on famine, the first effects of which 
were now manifesting themselves. The crowds round the 
bakers' shops were already so dense that several persons had 
been pressed to death. Meat and wine were almost com- 
pletely exhausted, and bread of the worst quality exceedingly 
scarce. The blockade both by sea and land was so close as 
to exclude all hope of obtaining supplies ; and that Venice 
must fall by hunger in a short time was now apparent to 



VENICE BOMBARDED. lxxxix 

all. Still the town continued perfectly tranquil, nor was the 
determination to resist the enemy in the slightest degree 
impaired ; all classes were still resolved to hold out to the 
last. Meanwhile Marshal Badetzki had been preparing 
means to put their fortitude to an unexpected proof. When 
the silence of the lagoons had for many days been unbroken 
by a single hostile gun, on Sunday, the 31st of July, at mid- 
night, when the populace were in their beds, and the higher 
classes, as was their custom, were promenading in the illu- 
minated Piazza di San Marco, suddenly they found them- 
selves in the midst of a shower of red-hot shot, which 
covered at once nearly three-fourths of the city. In a 
moment all Yenice was alive. The streets were crowded 
with men, women, and children, hurrying from the exposed 
districts toward the Castello and the public gardens, which 
the projectiles did not reach. But the alarm did not affect 
the constancy of the Venetians ; those who were houseless 
quartered themselves on the inhabitants of the safe quarters, 
with as much unconcern as if all were members of one 
family. By-and-by it was found that the balls seldom, if 
ever, penetrated further than the roof and one story, and 
the inhabitants remained unconcerned in the lower parts of 
their houses. Some buildings were set on fire, but the 
flames were quickly extinguished. 

The means by which the Austrians succeeded, at length, 
in throwing projectiles into the city, was by mounting 
eighty pounders and Paixhan guns of great calibre at San 
Oiuliano, and firing with muzzles greatly elevated. The 
torrent of balls, which fell incessantly day and night, had no 
other effect than to destroy property, and to demolish the 
most beautiful works of architecture and sculpture. Many 
churches suffered severely ; nearly every palace on the Grand 
Canal was perforated, some of them with from thirty to forty 
balls ; and one shot struck the Bialto. 

Provisions were hourly becoming more scarce ; the supply 
could last but two weeks longer ; and yet the people very 
quietly said, " "We will hold out until we have nothing more 
to eat, and then the Croats may come and do what they 
please." To add to the horrors of their situation, the cholera 
broke out amongst them in its most malignant form, its 
ravages increased, no doubt, by the scanty and unwholesome 



XC HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

food on which they had been compelled for some time to 
subsist ; yet amid all these disasters not the least sign of 
turbulence or despondency appeared in the afflicted city. 

On the 14th of August, Marshal Padetzki, aware of the 
state to which Venice was reduced, renewed his efforts to 
induce it to capitulate, by offering nearly the same terms 
that had been previously rejected. But rejected they were 
again, though ammunition, food, medicine, drink, and even 
water was failing, and though the cholera was carrying off 
from eighty to a hundred a day. On the 17th, however, the 
president of the republic, after consulting the commandant 
of the French squadron and the French consul, decided that 
longer resistance was impossible, and that a deputation 
should be sent to the Austrian camp with an offer of capi- 
tulation. The offer, received on the 19th by the Austrian 
commander, was transmitted to Milam and three days elapsed 
before Marshal Padetzki's answer arrived. It was an 
anxious interval for the prostrate Venetians, who feared that 
the terms to be imposed upon them would be rigorous in 
the extreme. They had but two days' provisions left, and 
those of the worst kind ; the progress of the cholera was 
frightful ; the absolute and unconditional surrender of the 
city within two days inevitable. Great, therefore, was the 
joy of the Venetians, when it was made known to them that 
Padetzki had generously forborne to impose any additional 
stipulations on his fallen foe. The capitulation was agreed 
to by the municipality of Venice, in whose favour the Pro- 
visional Government and the National Assembly had abdi- 
cated their powers ; the firing ceased on both sides, and the 
republic of Venice was no more. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Revolt and Bombardment of Vienna. Abdication of the Emperor 
Ferdinand. 

The proceedings of the Imperial Diet, from the time of its 
formal opening in Vienna, on the 22nd of July, 1848, down 
to the catastrophe of October, were marked by utter in- 
capacity for any of the objects it was chosen to promote. It 



DiSOKDERS IN VIENNA. XCI 

occupied itself but nominally with tlie structure of the con- 
stitution j what it really aspired to, was the immediate 
direction of the government by the terror which it affected 
to exercise over the capital, the ministry, and the empire. 
The condition of the people of Yienna, and especially of the 
masses of the labouring population in the suburbs, had 
become frightfully necessitous. Money was more freely 
distributed by the leaders of the movement for building 
barricades, than for any pursuits of lawful industry, which, 
indeed, were universally checked ; and the Assembly con- 
tinued to sit and wrangle within the grasp of the power 
which was one day to destroy all semblance of control and 
authority. 

The first explosion after the opening the Assembly, took 
place on the 23rd of August, and appears to have been con- 
fined to the class of workmen, who were irritated at the 
reduction of wages which had just taken place. A conflict 
ensued near the Prater and the Brigettenau, between the mob 
and a detachment of the national guard : six persons were 
killed ; but the government allayed the tumult, by dis- 
tributing relief to the people in the shape of fictitious public 
work. This opportunity was, however, wisely taken to dis- 
solve the " Committee of Public Safety," on the ground of its 
having utterly failed to effect its proposed object, whilst it 
secretly tended to favour the projects of anarchy. On the 
14th of September the disturbances were renewed with a 
more hostile and threatening character. On the evening of 
that day, the offices of the minister of war were surrounded 
by large bodies of armed men, consisting partly of national 
guards, partly of members of the academic legion, wearing on 
their hats a printed bill, to the effect that " the restoration 
of the Committee of Public Safety could alone save the 
threatened liberties of the free-minded citizens of Vienna." 
This tumultuous body was dispersed by the best portion of 
the national guard, backed by the troops of the line. 

The disorders reached their climax on the 6th of October 
On the 3rd, the emperoi of 'Austria, who, meanwhile, had 
returned to Schonbrunn, issued a proclamation dissolving the 
Hungarian Diet, putting Hungary under martial law, and 
appointing Jellachich, the Ban of Croatia, commissioner 
plenipotentiary for the whole kingdom, with unlimited power, 



xcii 

civil and military. Ord e given thai several n gimenta 

should be dispatched Brom Vienna to aid the Ham Among 

the trOOpfl thus destined t<> act agaiiiM the Hungarians, was 

the Richter battalion of grenadiers, who had been quartered 

for many years in Vienna, and WOW unwilling to accept the 

service imposed upon them. Accordingly, they communicated 

with the national guards of the suburb in which their 
barracks were situated, and with the academical legion, both 

which corps promised that measures should be taken to 

prevent the departure of the grenadiers. 

Parties of the confederates went by night, and broke up 
the railway to some distance from the station, whilst others 
erected a barricade on the Tabor bridge, which the battalion 
would have to cross in order to reach the next station. The 
grenadiers were ordered to storm the barricade, but instead 
of doing so, they went over and joined the national guards 
and the academical legion, now assembled behind it in con- 
siderable force. Cavalry, infantry, and artillery were 
employed against the mutineers, but were completely routed 
by the latter, who then marched into the town. The con- 
flict became general, and the government troops were every- 
where defeated. The war office was stormed ; Count Latour, 
the minister of war, was taken there, and savagely murdered. 
His mutilated body was flung out of a window, stripped 
naked, and hung on a lamp-post, where it was exposed for a 
whole day to the brutal indignities of the mob. 

At six o'clock, the arsenal was the only place left in the 
city for the refuge of the troops and national guards who re- 
mained faithful to the government. The insurgents assailed 
it with cannon-balls and Congreve-rockets ; the garrison 
replied with grape and canister; and though part of the 
building took tire, they succeeded in keeping down the flames, 
and holding their assailants aloof through the entire night ; 
nor did they yield until next morning, when summoned to 
do so by their own commander, Count Auersperg, who had 
entered into stipulations with the Diet for the surrender. 
The arsenal was given up into the hands of the national 
guard and the academical legion, who had engaged to occupy 
and defend it ; but it was immediately plundered by the 
populace. Two hundred thousand new muskets became the 
spoil of the rabble, and with them all the trophies and 



SECOND FLIGHT OF THE IMPERIAL FAMILY. XC111 

military relics, collected from tlie period of the crusades to 
the present times. The sword of Scanderbeg was sold in 
the streets for two shillings. 

In the midst of these bloody deeds, the Diet, now reduced 
to the rump of a faction by the withdrawal of all the Bohe- 
mian deputies, declared its sittings permanent, and elected a 
Committee of Safety, whose decrees should be signed by the 
minister Hornbostel. A deputation was also appointed to 
carry an address to the emperor, demanding the formation of a 
new and popular cabinet, including Doblhoffand Hornbostel; 
the removal of the Ban Jellachich from his governorship of 
Hungary ; the revocation of the last proclamation against 
the Hungarians ; and an amnesty for those implicated in the 
riots of that day, including, especially, the avowed murderers 
of Count Latour. The Diet made itself an accomplice after 
the fact in a deed, which it described as " nothing more than 
an act of popular self-preservation, resulting from regretable 
circumstances." 

The emperor returned an evasive answer, and quitted the 
palace of Sehonbrunn at four a.m. on the 7th, with the 
other members of the imperial family, leaving behind him 
a sealed proclamation, which the minister Kraus read the 
same morning to the Diet. In this document, the emperor 
said he had done all that a sovereign could do ; he had 
renounced the unlimited power he had received from his 
forefathers ; he had been obliged, in May last, to quit the 
palace of his late father ; he had come back without any 
guarantee, and in full confidence, to his people. A strong, 
but audacious party, however, had urged things to the last 
extremity ; pillage and crime reigned in Vienna, and the 
minister of war had been murdered. He trusted in God and 
his own good right, and he now left the vicinity of his 
capital in order to find means to bring aid to his oppressed 
people. Kraus added, that he had refused to countersign 
" this unconstitutional and threatening proclamation." 

The Diet having already assumed to itself executive as 
well as deliberative powers, began, along with the three 
ministers, to act as a provisional government, affecting, how- 
ever, the observance of constitutional forms, and using the 
emperor's name to counteract the emperor's measures. Depu- 
tations were sent, one after another, to invite the monarch 

9 



XC1V HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

to return, under the implied peril of forfeiting his throne. 
Count Auersperg, who was outside Vienna with 12,000 men, 
was called upon to come in, and aid in maintaining order 
within the walls ; that is, in reality, to surrender himself to 
the forces of the Diet. This he declined, on the plea that 
he could only act under the instructions of the minister of 
war ; the orders of the late minister, the murdered Latour, 
did not allow him to enter Vienna, but he would obey a new 
minister of war as soon as any should be duly appointed. 
The Diet succeeded no better with Jellachich, who was at 
Ebersdorf with his Croats, within two hours' march 
of the city, having arrived there on the 9th, by forced 
marches from Raab, where he had been severely defeated by 
the Hungarians. Summoned to retire, he replied bluntly 
that he was the emperor's officer, commanding the emperor's 
forces, and that he awaited the imperial orders. The Diet 
then turned to Jellachich's enemies, the Hungarians, who 
had pursued him to the confines of Austria ; and his 
majesty's rebels, appealed to by his majesty's ministers, 
returned a gracious promise that, if called on by the Diet, 
they would support the Viennese against the common 
enemy, invade the metropolitan province, and clear it of his 
majesty's forces. But the Diet, which had not hesitated to 
sanction the murder of the emperor's minister, and the 
robbery of his arsenal, nor scrupled to usurp his power, was 
overcome with constitutional qualms at the thought of ex- 
tending to the Hungarians the invitation which the latter 
burned to receive, though such a step would have rendered 
the Diet invincible by any force that Austria could at that 
time have brought against it. 

The empire was now in a state of extreme peril and 
almost miintelligible confusion ; nor was this dismal imbroglio 
the work of the revolutionary party alone. The policy of 
the Austrian cabinet from the events of March to this period, 
was characterized only by indecision, inconsistency, and 
duplicity. It contributed neither to consolidate the move- 
ment in which it originated, nor to counteract the evils to 
which that movement gave birth. It had been faithful to no 
principle it professed as its own. It had not protected the 
interest it promised to guard, but brought the imperial 
authority first into contempt, and then into danger. It had 



PROCLAMATIONS FROM OLMUTZ, OCT. 1849. XCV 

been weak, timid, intriguing, and perfidious. No small part 
of its dealings with Hungary had been eminently of this 
character ; raising hopes which it never meant to fulfil, 
making promises which it had no intention to perform, it 
thus greatly contributed to render formidable that in- 
surrection, which was now hurrying thousands of armed men 
to rescue from the menacing hands of loyalty the beleaguered 
capital of sedition and treason. Without question, it was 
the consciousness of the insincerity with which they had been 
treated that aggravated the hostile passions of the Hungarians, 
already too prone to recognise an insult and revenge an 
injury. To be satisfied of the duplicity that was practised, 
we need only recall the proceedings toward the Hungarians 
and Croatians. On one day, the emperor grants to the 
Hungarians political government and control over the 
Croatians ; on another, the Croatians are furnished with 
men, money, and arms, and encouraged to resist all en- 
croachments of the Hungarians. At one time the Ban 
of Croatia is proclaimed a traitor ; at another, he is 
nominated imperial commissioner plenipotentiary for Hun- 
gary. 

The time was now come when there should be no more 
faltering, if the throne of Habsburg was to be saved. 
Quietly seated under the protecting guns of the strong 
fortress of Olmiitz, the emperor threw off all disguise, and 
in his proclamations of the 16th and 19th of October, de- 
clared open war against the revolt in his capital and other 
places. The rebels were to be put down by force of arms, 
and the murderers of his faithful servants Lamberg and 
Latour, should be handed over to avenging justice. To 
this end, he appointed Prince Windischgratz commander-in- 
chief of all his forces, except those under Radetzki in Italy, 
and he gave the prince full power to do all things " accord- 
ing to his judgment, within the shortest time." 

On the 23rd, Prince Windischgratz arrived before Vienna 
with an army of some 100,000 men and 140 guns, and sum- 
moned the city to surrender within forty-eight hours. 
Meanwhile, preparations had been made for its defence with 
much bustle, but little practical ability. Bodies of fighting 
men had flocked in from the country round ; barricades and 
fortifications had been raised, and mounted with cannon ; 

9% 



XCV1 HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

the command of the national guard had been given to 
Messenhauser, formerly an officer in the Austrian army, 
and that of the mobile guard to General Bern, a Pole, and a 
man of remarkable military talent. The forty-eight hours 
allowed by Prince Windischgratz having expired, the attack 
began on the morning of the 26th, and, after twelve hours' 
fighting, the exterior line of the Leopoldstadt faubourg was 
taken, but the interior remained in the hands of its de- 
fenders. The next day was spent in unavailing negotiations. 
On the 28th, the attack was renewed on all sides with great 
vigour, especially on the east and south. The city was set 
on fire in many places, and the contest was continued all 
night in the Leopoldstadt and Wieden faubourgs. On the 
29th, the Yiennese sent a deputation to Prince Windisch- 
gratz, with proposals of surrender. The prince refused to 
abate his previous demand for disarming the workmen and 
the students, but agreed to suspend hostilities for twelve 
hours, while the besieged held a last deliberation. 

The deputation returned, and summoned a meeting of the 
town council, which was attended by Messenhauser, the 
commander of the academic legion, and some members of 
the Diet. Messenhauser declared that he and the officers 
under him were ready to hold out, if the council decided to 
do so ; but the situation was nearly desperate. The troops 
were in possession of the suburbs to the foot of the glacis, 
and the walls were incapable of general defence against 
escalade. On the question being put to the vote, it was re- 
solved by three-fourths of the town councillors that the 
defence should cease. This resolution was announced to 
Prince Windischgratz, and the disarming was actually com- 
menced ; but on the 30th, a brisk cannonade was heard in 
the direction of Hungary, the sentinels on St. Stephen's 
Tower announced the long-expected approach of the Hun- 
garian army, and the citizens were again summoned to arms, 
notwithstanding their engagements to surrender. To pimish 
this breach of faith, Windischgratz recommenced the bom- 
bardment of some of the faubourgs known as the most 
rebellious, and the firing was continued until nightfall. 

The cannonade which had so raised the hopes of the 
Viennese in the morning was that of an engagement 
which took place at Schwechat, twelve miles from Vienna, 



» ( 



BATTLE OF SCHWECHAT. XCV11 

between a Hungarian arm}' of 22,000 men, coming to 
the aid of the city, and 28,000 imperial troops despatched 
against them under Auersperg and Jellachich. The 
Hungarians had been awaiting on the frontier for many- 
days the call of the Austrian Diet. At last, on the 
28th of October, Kossuth himself joined the army. The 
twenty columns of fire that rose that night from amid the 
palaces of Vienna, showed but too fearfully the need there 
was of speedy aid for the devoted city ; and without 
waiting longer on the Austrian Diet, Kossuth gave the order 
to advance. It was too late, for on that very day had the 
fatal blow been struck. On the 3Gth the Hungarians came 
up with the scattered detachments of the Imperialists, drove 
them out of Fischamend and Albern, carried Mannsworth 
by storm, and pushed on toward Yienna, wmilst Jellachich 
and Auersperg awaited their approach in most secure and 
advantageous positions. 

The main body of the Hungarians was between the 
Danube and the Schwartzen Lachen, a sluggish arm of that 
river, as broad and deep as the Danube itself. At the head 
of this body of water the Austrians, with a park of sixty 
guns, stood ready to receive them ; while ten regiments, 
principally cavalry, had been sent out to gain their rear and 
inclose them in the defile. So gross a blunder could not 
escape the military eye of Gorgei, who was at that time 
invested with but an im important command ; he directed 
Kossuth's attention to the fact, and by an immediate retreat 
they narrowly escaped the trap and avoided a total defeat, 
in which an hour's advance would inevitably have involved 
them. They w r ere pursued by the victorious Austrians both 
that day and the following, and driven back into Hungary. 
This was the battle of Schwechat, in which Colonel Gorgei, 
for the efficient service rendered in saving the Hungarian 
army from the cut de sac, w r as promoted on the ground to 
the rank of general. 

In consequence of the bombardment of the 30th, the city, 
on the following morning, declared, for a second time, its 
unconditional submission. A deputation from the munici- 
pality communicated to the field-marshal the fact that the 
greater part of the citizens were willing to surrender without 
reserve ; but that they were too feeble to carry their deter- 



XCV111 HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

mination into effect in opposition to the radical club, the 
committee of students, and the armed mob, who threatened 
to set the city on fire, and bury themselves beneath its 
ruins. After receiving the deputation, the imperial general 
ordered large bodies of troops into the faubourgs, the uncon- 
ditional surrender of which was betokened by the white 
flags hanging from the bastions and the adjoining houses ; 
but no sooner had the unsuspecting troops made their 
appearance on the open glacis, than their ranks were torn by 
a murderous fire of grape and musketry, poured upon them 
from the ramparts. Incensed by this treacherous act, Prince 
Windischgratz ordered a bombardment of the inner city, 
and an attack by storm on three of the eastern and south- 
eastern gates. The imperial library, several public buildings, 
and two churches were set on fire. The Burg Thor was 
carried by the troops, and a short but bloody fight began in 
the streets. The defenders being still, as on the 29th and 
30th, divided among themselves — some only of them for 
fighting, more for yielding — the success of the besiegers was 
rapid ; and before midnight the greater part of the capital 
was subdued. The contest, however, was continued at de- 
tached points on the following day, and the north-westerly 
parts of the city were not mastered until dawn on the 2nd 
of November. The fire in the imperial library was extin- 
guished without much injury to its valuable contents, but 
the Augustin church was nearly destroyed. Prince Windisch- 
gratz proclaimed that, in consequence of the breach of capi- 
tulation, the conditions which he had at first agreed to were 
null and void ; he declared Vienna in a state of siege ; the 
academic legion dissolved for ever, and the national guard 
for an indefinite time ; all newspapers and political associa- 
tions suspended ; domiciliary visits to be made for the dis- 
covery of concealed arms, &c. 

The loss of property occasioned by the siege of the 
Austrian capital has been estimated at about a million and a 
quarter sterling. The loss of life was much less than might 
have been expected after so protracted and desperate a 
struggle. Of the 1,600 persons arrested, nine only were 
punished with death, nine sentenced to imprisonment for 
a term of years, 996 discharged, and the remainder were 
tried by civil tribunal. Many of the most influential 



THE SCHWARTZENBERG MINISTRY. XC1X 

participators in the revolt escaped by flight before the 
troops entered the city. General Bern made his way 
into Hungary in disguise. Among the prisoners tried by 
court-martial were two members of the Diet of Frankfort, 
sent thence by the deputies of the extreme left to aid 
by their counsels the insurrection in Yienna. One of 
them, Robert Blum, member for Leipsig, being condemned, 
u on his own confession of having made revolutionary 
speeches, and opposed armed resistance to the imperial 
troops," was shot on the 9th of November. The other 
deputy, Frobel, was sentenced to be hanged, but after- 
wards received a free pardon on the score of " extenuating 
circumstances." Messenhauser,the commander of the national 
guard, was shot. 

After the subjection of Vienna, the imperial government 
entered upon a conciliatory course towards all but the 
Hungarians, who were sharply admonished against lending 
themselves to the intrigues of the traitor Kossuth. A new 
ministry was formed, the two principal members of which 
were Prince Felix Schwartzenberg, premier and minister for 
foreign affairs, and Count Francis Stadion, minister of the 
interior. The Diet assembled at Kremsier on the 22nd of 
November. On the 27th the premier delivered a speech 
declaring the principles on which he and his colleagues pro- 
posed to act in their government. So far as appeared from 
that manifesto, the statesmen who subscribed to it were 
honestly and judiciously intent on consolidating the liberties 
acquired by the revolution of March ; but read by the light 
of subsequent events, it remains a monument of the premier's 
bad faith. Prince Schwartzenberg declared that, whilst re- 
solved to vindicate that authority in the executive without 
which no government could exist, the cabinet disclaimed all 
reactionary intentions, and instead of endeavouring to re- 
establish the Austria of 1815, they sought to develop a new 
Austria suited to the altered state of Europe. This was to 
be effected by organizing a true representation of the people, 
on the basis of free institutions and local self-government, 
with a vigorous central administration. Such a constitution 
of the empire would be the very opposite to that which 
existed down to 1848 ; that was a centralised bureaucracy, 
ruling over provinces kept in a state of subjection, separa- 



c HI3T0R1 

bion,and mutual ig e: the new plan, if realized, would 

li;t\ e been a popular machinery of government, and a fed 
ized consolidation The passages in the ministerial pro 
one, which related bo the organization o 
Llows : — 

•• We undertake the administration of the po 
ernment, which his Majesty has handed to us, and at the 
e time the responsibility of that power; for while 
our firm resolution to keep aloof from all unconstituti 
influence, we shall not allow any encroachments upon the 
executive authority. . . . We wish for a constitutional mo- 
narchy uprightly and without reservation. We desire that 
form of government whose existence and secure chars 
can be recognised by the monarch and the representative 
body of Austria. We wish these to be founded on equal 
rights, and the free development of all nationalities : as also 
on the equality of all members of the state before the law, 
secured by publicity in all branches of the legislature We 
wish that the internal concerns of the country districts 
should be carried on by free members, and by a free move- 
ment among the country people themselves ; the whole being 
bound together by the common bond of a strong central 
power. . . . The cabinet does not mean to stand in the rear 
of the progress to free and popular institutions. It feels 
itself in duty bound to head that movement. . . . The free 
state must be founded on free communes. It is strictly 
necessary that, through a liberal communal law, each com- 
mune be guaranteed its independence of management within 
the limits prescribed in reference to the general welfare. As 
a necessary and unavoidable consequence of the independence 
of the communes, may be mentioned the independence of 
the state government, and the regulating of the authorities 
in a way corresponding with the wants of the times. Suit- 
able measures will be laid before you regarding those cir- 
cumstances, as well as relating to the improvement, in a 
constitutional spirit, of the administration of justice, the 
establishment of communal tribunals instead of patrimonial 
ones, and the complete severance of government from the 
affairs of justice." 

A project, which had been discussed in May. after the 



FRANCIS JOSEPH THE FIRST. CI 

flight to Inspruck, was now carried into effect ; and on the 
2nd of December, the Emperor Ferdinand abdicated the 
Austrian throne ; Francis Charles, his next brother, and 
legal heir, renounced the succession ; and Francis Joseph, a 
young man only in his nineteenth year, and son of the- 
renouncing archduke, was proclaimed emperor of Austria, &c., 
by the name of Francis Joseph the First. The young 
emperor's inaugural proclamation was far from indicating 
the intention he cherished to return to the old despotic 
system : — 

" We, Francis Joseph the First, by the grace of God, 
emperor of Austria, &c. 

" By the resignation of our beloved uncle, the Emperor and 
King Ferdinand the First, in Hungary and Bohemia of that 
name the Fifth, and by the resignation of our beloved 
father, the Lord Archduke Francis Charles, and summoned 
by virtue of the Pragmatic Sanction to assume the crown of 
the empire, proclaim hereby solemnly to our people, the 
fact of our ascension of the throne, under the name of 
Francis Joseph the First. 

" We are convinced of the necessity and the value of free 
institutions, and enter with confidence on the path of a 
prosperous reformation of the monarchy. 

" On the basis of true liberty, on the basis of the equality of 
rights of all our people, and the equality of all citizens before 
the law, and on the basis of their equally partaking in the 
representation and legislation, the country will rise to its 
ancient grandeur ; it will acquire new strength to resist the 
storms of the time ; it will be a hall to shelter the tribes 
of many tongues, under the sceptre of our fathers. 

" Jealous of the glory of the crown, and resolved to pre- 
serve the monarchy uncurtailed, but ready to share our 
privilege with the representatives of our people, we hope, by 
the assistance of God and the co-operation of our people, to 
succeed in uniting all the countries and tribes of the 
monarchy into one integral state. We have had severe 
trials ; tranquillity and order have been disturbed in many 
parts of the empire. A civil war is even now raging in one 
part of the monarchy. Preparations have been made to 



Cll HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

restore legal order everywhere. The conquest over rebellion 
and the return of domestic peace, are the first conditions to 
the great work which we now take in hand. 

"In this, we rely confidently on the sensible and candid 
co-operation of the nation by its representatives. 

" We rely on the sound sense of the loyal inhabitants of 
the country, whom the new laws on the abolition of servi- 
tude and imposts have admitted to a full enjoyment of civil 
rights. 

« "vyT e re iy on the loyal servants of the state. 

" We expect our glorious army will persevere in their 
ancient fidelity and bravery. They will continue to be a 
pillar of the throne, and a bulwark to the country and its 
free institutions. 

" We shall be happy to reward merit, without any dis- 
tinction of birth or station. 

" People of Austria ! it is an awful time in which we 
mount the throne of our fathers. Great are the duties of 
our office, great is its responsibility. May God protect us ! 



"Francis Joseph. 
" schwartzenberg. 



Olmiitz, December 5, 1848." 



Time has not yet revealed the secret history of the court 
revolution, by which Ferdinand was dethroned, and his 
nephew put in his place. Was the abdication voluntary or 
not ? Did the emperor, weak in mind and body, harassed by 
the violent commotions that shook his throne to its founda- 
tions, throw down a sceptre too heavy for his arm ? Or was 
he removed because his courtiers and his family found, in his 
religous scruples, an obstacle to the accomplishment of de- 
signs opposed to the oath which he had sworn to his people? 
By whatever means the change was effected, one thing was 
gained by it — the new emperor had never sworn fidelity to 
the contract made by the house of Habsburg with the 
people of Hungary, and therefore had no oath to break. 
The proclamation which announced this important event to 
the Hungarian nation, was answered by a declaration of its 
Diet — that no change could take place on the throne of 
Hungary without the consent of the Diet, as long as the 



RIGHTS OF HUNGARY. CU1 

former king lived ; and that no king could be recognised, 
according to ancient law, until lie had been crowned, after 
having first taken the oath to the constitution. 

The correctness of the constitutional law thus laid down 
had been fully tested and confirmed sixty years before. 
When the native dynasty of Hungary became extinct, in the 
year 1527, she, of her own free will, elected her king from 
the house of Habsburg, upon the condition that he should 
govern according to ancient law, maintain inviolable the 
nationality of the people, preserve the independence of the 
country, its liberties, and its constitution, and not absorb the 
nation into the common mass of his imperial dominions. 
Hungary was in fact to be to Austria as to laws, what 
Hanover was to Great Britain. In 1687, the throne, which 
had previously been elective, was declared hereditary in the 
reigning family, but on the condition that, before being 
crowned, each prince should take the oath to defend the 
constitution, and to maintain the nationality inviolate. How 
literally this was understood by both parties to the contract 
appears from the fact, that Joseph II. had purposely abstained, 
from solemnising his coronation as king of Hungary, in 
order that he might violate the constitution ; and that all 
his acts were in consequence abrogated and declared null 
(in 1790) by the succeeding king, Leopold II., who thereupon 
made a peculiarly distinct avowal (Art. 10), that "Hungary 
with her appanages is a free kingdom, and in regard to her 
whole legal form of government (including all the tribunals), 
independent ; that is, entangled with no other kingdom or 
people, but having her own peculiar consistence and con- 
stitution ; accordingly, to be governed by her legitimately 
crowned king, after her peculiar laws and customs." 

The late king, Ferdinand V., after swearing the oath that 
his forefathers had dared to break — but never with impunity 
— received with all solemnity the separate crown of Hungary, 
in the Dom of St. Martin, at Presburg. So important was 
the ceremony of the Hungarian coronation considered, that 
on his marriage six years afterwards, he brought his queen 
to Presburg to be crowned with, the same solemnity queen of 
Hungary. His declaration of title, the coins of the realm, 
every communication to foreign courts, every patent, and 



CIV HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

every decree, while it declared Ferdinand to be emperor of 
Austria, declared him also to be only king of Hungary, and 
affirmed Hungary to be a kingdom. 4 - 

But such considerations as these were totally disregarded 
by the imperial family, which now deemed itself strong 
enough to achieve the conquest of Hungary, absorb it into the 
empire, and accomplish, in the extinction of its liberties, an 
object which their house had vainly pursued for three hun- 
dred years. 



CHAPTER X. 

Second Invasion of Hungary. 

Vienna having been subdued, it was expected that the 
campaign against Hungary would be opened in a few days ; 
but it was not until the 15th of December, that Prince 
Windischgr'atz began his march. Even that long delay had 
scantily enabled the Hungarians to offer a show of resistance 
to the forces which, entering their territory from nine points 
simultaneously, were about to inclose it within: a ring-fence 
of bayonets and cannon. The invasion was planned on the 
principle of those great sporting battues, in which every head 
of game in a large district is driven on before a continually 
narrowing circle of hunters. The imperial main army 
marched eastward from Austria in three divisions, re- 
spectively commanded by Jellachich, Simonich, and Ser- 
belloni. From the Galician frontier, General Schlick directed 
his march due south towards the heart of the kingdom. 
Nearly opposite him was the force advancing under Dahlen 
from the Illyrian provinces ; while Puchner, Urban, and 
Wardener, who had already put down the insurrection in 
Transylvania, were pressing upon the eastern frontier. 

" The forces which the Hungarians had at this time," says 
Klapka,f " were as nothing compared with the masses of our 
enemies. We had some garrisons in fortresses. Gorgei and 
Perczel had 30,000 men on the Upper Danube. In Upper 
Hungary they had an ill-trained corps of 8,000 men ; and 
in Transylvania they could not even dispose of 6,000 troops. 

* Edinburgh Keview. cxcvii. f Klapka, War in Hungary. 



SECOND INVASION OF HUNGARY. CV 

The most efficient force was still in the Bats country, and in 
the Banat, where they fought against the Baizin (or Servians). 
These troops, including the "blockading corps round Arad, 
numbered 20,000 men." Of the whole Hungarian force, 
not more than 35,000 men were regularly armed, and only 
10,000 were disciplined soldiers. The rest consisted of militia 
(honveds), or of raw recruits, waiting for muskets, or armed 
with pikes and scythes. There was a grea,t lack of arms and 
ammunition, and manufactories for the supply of such tilings 
hardly existed, for the imperial government had always dis- 
couraged their establishment in Hungary. But these 
deficiencies were supplied by the extraordinary exertions of 
Kossuth, who was now President of the Committee of 
Defence, which had been established after the resignation of 
the ministry. Foundries, powder-mills, saltpetre-manufac- 
tories, &c, were established at various points ; sulphur, for 
making gunpowder, was extracted at great cost from copper 
ore ; and for metal, recourse was had to the church bells. 

Under the extraordinary expenses of the government, 
money soon failed in the treasury ; but this deficiency was 
effectually met by the issue of paper, chargeable upon the 
national domains. These government notes, being based on 
valid security, circulated freely at par in preference to the 
depreciated paper-money of Austria. 

The success of the Imperialists in the beginning of the 
campaign was rapid and universal. Oedenburg was taken on. 
the first day, Tyrnau on the second, and Presburg on the 
third. Gorgei, who commanded the Hungarian army on 
the frontiers of Austria, unable to resist the force opposed 
to him, contented himself rather with obstructing its progress 
by petty engagements, whilst effecting a general retreat to 
Raab. There he hoped to maintain his ground behind the 
three rivers and his strong intrench ments ; but the elements 
decided otherwise. The weather had been unusually mild in 
the early part of the winter, but on the 20th of December, 
it suddenly became intensely cold. The Austrian troops 
crossed the frozen waters of the Little Danube, and Gorgei, 
compelled to retreat, abandoned to them the formidable 
intrenchments at Raab. Before he could form a junction 
with Perczel's corps, the latter was routed at Mor by Jel- 
lachich, with the loss, by death or dispersion, of all but 



CV1 HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

2,000 of his men ; and nothing remained for Gorgei but 
to retire beyond the Danube, which he crossed at Pesth on 
the 3rd of January, 1849. On the same day, Kossuth and 
the government left Pesth for the fortress of Debreczin, 
taking with them all the public funds, and the ancient and 
venerated crown of St. Stephen ; and two days afterwards, 
Prince Windischgratz entered the Hungarian capital without 
striking a blow. 

In the southern districts, the imperial arms had been 
equally successful ; the troops which had entered from the 
north and west were free to move towards the centre ; in 
less than three weeks, four-fifths of the whole country had 
been reduced to subjection, and the imperial supremacy so 
far re-established, as to leave little apparent probability that 
the Hungarians would ever again be able to resume the 
offensive. But these advantages were all frittered away by 
Prince Windischgratz, who loitered for nearly two months at 
Pesth, engaged in the useless task of reorganizing the adminis- 
tration throughout the conquered districts, whilst he suffered 
to pass unimproved the only season of the year in which his 
artillery could be made available, and allowed his opponents 
time to recover from their consternation, gather recruits, and 
discipline their forces. 

Gorgei had proposed, even before the invasion of the 
Austrian army, to transfer the seat of government and the 
military depots beyond the left bank of the Theiss, to the 
great plain bounded by that river, the Maros, and the moun- 
tains of Transylvania. The two rivers run a very rapid and 
irregular course between low banks, bordered by marshes of 
great extent ; so that all the year round, but principally in 
spring and autumn, the transit of an army and its train is a 
matter of the greatest difficulty. The mountains of Tran- 
sylvania protect the eastern side of this plain, and offer but 
few passes practicable for troops. This protected position, 
moreover, includes the most fertile part of the country, one 
peculiarly rich in grain, cattle, and especially horses; so that 
it affords all the requisites necessary for forming and victual- 
ling an army, and for recruiting and mounting cavalry. 
Here then it was that Gorgei desired to have the whole 
national force of Hungary concentrated, until the army 
should be reorganized ; but Kossuth objected, chiefly because 



KOSSUTH ANB OORGEI. CYU 

he apprehended that the nation would be too much dis- 
couraged, if the government retreated before the enemy had 
crossed the frontier ; and it was with him a consideration 
of the first importance to keep alive that popular enthusiasm, 
on which he mainly relied for the salvation of the country. 
Gorgei, on the other hand, looked with profound scorn on 
the vapouring enthusiasm of untrained multitudes and dis- 
orderly volunteers, and insisted that there was no safety 
for Hungary, except through the efforts of a well-disciplined 
regular army, such as it was impracticable to form on the 
frontier. Out of this primary difference of views, there 
grew up by degrees that personal antipathy of the military 
for the civil leader, which was fatal to them both and to 
their country. 

The event proved the correctness of Gorgei's views as to 
the opening of the campaign ; for the muster on the frontiers 
was worse than useless, serving only to enhance the easy 
triumph of the Austrian main army to such a degree, that 
the Hungarians were panic-stricken, and the Diet and 
government so humbled, as to send a deputation to Prince 
Windischgratz, in the desperate hope of making terms with 
him. These overtures had no other result than the im- 
prisonment and subsequent execution of Count Louis Bathy- 
any, the ex-minister, who headed the deputation. The 
government thereupon departed instantly for Debreczin, in 
a manner more resembling a flight than a well-arranged 
removal ; but it left behind it an order for Gorgei to risk a 
decisive battle before the capital, coupled with two incom- 
patible provisoes, namely, that he should keep in view the 
means of securing the retreat of the army to the left bank 
of the Danube, and likewise, by all means, the preservation 
of the capital. Now the only way by which the army could 
pass the Danube was by the chain-bridge between Buda and 
Pesth, which was barely practicable ; and its retreat that 
way, after a lost battle, would expose it to utter destruction, 
if neither the suburbs of Buda nor the town itself were to 
be occupied and defended, lest they should incur the dangers 
of a hostile attack. Upon these considerations, a council of 
war, summoned by General "Vetter, countermanded the 
battle, and ordered Gorgei to march up the left bank of the 
Danube, in order to divert the Austrian main army from 



CV111 HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

the shortest line of operation against Debreczin. Thus was 
the prestige of authority impaired ; the army was left to 
arrange its own course ; and having felt the want of energy 
in the civil rulers, it began to act independently. Hence 
ensued subsequent catastrophes. 

The first act showed what was to be expected. On 
arriving at Waitzen, Gorgei issued a proclamation in the 
name of his army, declaring that it fought for nothing else 
than the laws of 1848, and the legitimate king, Ferdinand V., 
and that its mission was to defend the constitution both 
against the public enemy without and republican move- 
ments at home. This went the whole length of pronouncing 
the precise conditions on which the army would obey ; it 
was a renunciation of implicit obedience to the civil 
power. 

Advancing by forced marches from Waitzen, in the direc- 
tion of Kremnitz and Schemnitz, Gorgei was overtaken on 
the 21st, on the plateau before the latter place, by the 
Austrians under Czoric, and suffered a severe check. Never- 
theless, his operations at this period deserve to rank with the 
most remarkable known in the history of war. In the depth 
of a severe winter, he led his troops and artillery over the 
rugged Carpathians; one while appearing on the frontiers of 
Galicia, at another, escaping to the mountain towns and 
villages. His situation soon became extremely critical, 
pressed as he was on all sides; and making his winter 
marches and countermarches over fields and mountains of 
ice and snow, he found himself in his native country of Zips, 
suddenly shut in on three sides ; while Hammerstein, in 
Galicia, was marshalling all the disposable troops to the 
frontier to oppose his fourth and last exit. 

Guyon, at the head of Gorgei's northern column, suc- 
ceeded in carrying off all the gold and silver stores of 
the government from the mining districts, and the gun- 
powder from Neusohl. He reached the country of Zips 
without serious difficulty. The Austrians surprised him at 
Neudorf on the night of the 2nd of February ; but after 
a bloody struggle in the streets, the Hungarians were vic- 
torious, and dispersed the enemy. Guyon then advanced to 
the country of Saros, where he found himself opposed by 
one of Schlick's divisions, which occupied the steep heights 



THE BEAXYISZKO PASS. C1X 

and defiles of the Eranyiszko. This rugged pass, which, 
from its elevation, was deemed impregnable, was the only- 
road from Leutschau to Kaschau, and the sole outlet for 
Gorgei and his troops, by which their junction with the 
army of the Theiss could be effected. Attacking it from the 
valley below, and encountering a terrible battery at every 
turn of the mountain road, Guyon was obliged to sacrifice 
one-fourth of his heroic troops before all the defiles were 
carried. 

Guyon ordered four of his battalions to lay down their 
arms; and for five whole hours, from eight o'clock in the 
evening till one o'clock in the morning, they climbed up 
steep footpaths, known only to the natives of the country, 
carrying the ammunition and the dismantled cannon piece- . 
meal on their shoulders, or dragging them up by ropes. The 
rest of the troops, at the entrance, were continually making 
feigned attacks, to divert the attention of the Austrian s, and 
prevent the silence of the night from betraying the move- 
ment of those engaged in the ascent. At last a gun from the 
heights gave the signal for a general attack. Ten succes- 
sive times did the troops stationed below advance to the 
assault. The Austrians abandoned one intrenchment after 
another, fighting as they retreated, till the last was captured, 
and they fied in the utmost confusion through the opposite 
outlet of the pass, losing a third part of their numbers and a 
great portion of their artillery. Next morning Gorgei's 
vanguard passed through the defile. On the 6th of February 
he reached Eperies, and re-established his communications, 
interrupted for four weeks, with the army of the Theiss and 
the government at Debreczin. 

Meanwhile Prince Windischgratz had begun to despatch 
his forces towards the Theiss. The railroad was reopened to 
Szolnok, and that important point was occupied by Ottinger's 
brigade, which was there attacked on the 23rd of January, 
and, owing to the negligence of their commander, suffered 
one of the most signal defeats that occurred during the whole 
war. The Hungarians under Perczel and Damjanic, cross- 
ing the frozen river, surrounded Ottinger's vanguard, that 
held the bridge over the Theiss. Those wild riders the 
czikos (Hungarian horseherds), contributed greatly to the 
success of this surprise. They were close at hand before 

h 



CX HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

Szolnok when the trumpet of the Austrian cuirassiers sounded 
to horse ; the officers barely saved themselves by flight, most 
of them riding away without saddles, and the common sol- 
diers were cut down in the stables, before they could mount ; 
1,800 were made prisoners, and the remainder escaped to 
Czegled. It was no battle, but the loss to the Austrians 
was greater than that of many a regular engagement, with 
cannons firing from morning to night. Subsequently, General 
Ottinger, reinforced by Prince Windischgratz, advanced 
again upon Szolnok ; but the Hungarians, instead of giving 
battle as was expected, retreated across the Theiss. 

After the Hungarians under Meszaros had been defeated 
by Schlick on the heights of Pareza, the former was super- 
seded in his command by Klapka, whj made a successful 
stand at Tokay, Tarczal, and Bodroy Keresztur. Schlick 
attacked those positions severally on the 22nd, 23rd, and 
31st of January, and was repulsed on each occasion. The 
Austrians were not only prevented from advancing on 
Debreczin, but were driven back upon Kaschau and Eperies. 
Schlick, who had considered Gorgei as buried alive, drew 
his sabre in a fury when a major, on the 6th of February, 
brought him news to Eperies of the defeat at Branyiszko. 
* Dogs that ye are — all of you dogs I" he exclaimed ; " that 
pass I would have held against a hundred thousand men ! M 
He instantly decamped from Eperies, to escape Gorgei's 
superior forces, and took the route to Kaschau. There he 
learned that Klapka, who had lost sight of him since the 
battle of the 31st, was advancing upon him, and he was now 
fixed in the same position as Gorgei had been the very 
evening before. But Schlick was as familiar with the 
northern counties of Hungary as his enemy, and by masterly 
manoeuvres he succeeded in escaping by Raszo, Rosenau, and 
Rima Szombat to Losoncz, and subsequently effected a junc- 
tion with the main Austrian army. Of the army which he 
led from Galicia, not one- fourth returned ; and yet he might 
boldly claim the gratitude of the emperor. No other of the 
Austrian generals would have saved a single horse's shoe, nor 
probably his own person, from the hands of the Hungarians 
amid the defiles of the Carpathians. * 

* Schlessinger's War in Hungary. 



BATTLE OF KAPOLNA. CXI 

During the operations on the Theiss, Perczel's inability to 
command became so manifest that he was superseded, and 
General Dembinski, a Pole, was early in February invested 
with the command in chief of all the Hungarian armies, 
except that under Bern in Transylvania. This was in every 
way an unlucky appointment, and especially so as it was 
made at the moment when the Hungarian forces assembled 
behind the Theiss were ready to assume the offensive. Dem- 
binski had highly distinguished himself in the Polish cam- 
paign of 1831 ; but his conduct in Hungary by no means 
corresponded to his former reputation. Kossuth, who had 
not forgotten Gorgei's proclamation from Waitzen, was glad 
to secure a commander-in-chief who would hold the other 
generals in hand, and who, as a foreigner, would have no 
motive for joining an opposition party. He thought, too, 
that the military renown of the Polish general would excite 
the confidence of the army ; but, in thus calculating, he for- 
got the Hungarian character, forgot what he above all men 
should have remembered, that a nationality so jealous as that 
of the Hungarian, would not long tolerate the idea that its 
army needed a foreign commander. 

On the 24th of February, Windischgr'atz left Buda for the 
seat of war, and on the 26th and 27th a general engagement 
took place at Kapolna and its vicinity. There was hard 
fighting, with severe and probably equal loss on both sides. 
The Austrians were victorious, but neutralised the effect of 
their victory by abstaining from pursuit of the enemy. The 
Hungarians retired beyond Maklar, near which a severe and 
extensive cavalry engagement took place on the 28th, when 
the Austrians were compelled to retreat with the loss of their 
guns ; but notwithstanding this success, Dembinski continued 
his retrograde movement. 

On the 2nd of March, the Hungarians, pursued by the 
Austrians, crossed the Theiss at Tisza-Fured. On the 3rd, a 
council of war was held under the presidency of Gorgei, in 
which the assembled officers expressed their want of confi- 
dence in Dembinski, and required the commissary of the 
government, Szemere, to appoint another commander ad 
interim. Szemere complied, and nominated Gorgei. Dem- 
binski refused to relinquish the command, and was put under 
arrest by Gorgei. At this conjuncture Kossuth arrived, 

A2 



CX11 HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

with Meszaros, the minister of war, and General Yetter. the 
former commander of the army of the south. An investiga- 
tion was held, which resulted in Dembinski's removal and 
the nomination of Yetter as commander-in-chief. Thus the 
ill-advised act of appointing Dembinski to lead the national 
forces, had given occasion for another deadly blow to be 
struck at the civil authority. The army had rejected the 
commander whom the government had set over them. His 
removal was necessary; and how could the government 
punish the movers in this opposition after it had acknow- 
ledged they were right 1 This independent conduct of the 
army therefore remained unpunished ; the authority of the 
government fell ; and when Yetter was disabled by illness, 
the government could no longer resist the wish of the army, 
and was obliged to appoint as commander-in-chief that 
general who was most formidable to its power, and who had 
shown the greatest unwillingness to submit to its authority. 

The following were the positions of the Austrian army at 
this time. Tokay was occupied by the brigade under Gotz; 
Miskolz by Jablonovsky ; Schlick's corp was round Erlau, 
and extended thence to Szolnok ; the first army corps under 
Jellachich, was at Czegled, and the second, under Windisch- 
gratz, was between Buda and Hatvan. On the part of the 
Hungarians, it was now resolved to resume the offensive, 
which had for a time, under Dembinski's management, been 
changed for the defensive. 

On the 8th of March Gorgei recrossed the Theiss, Yetter 
marched on Szolnok, and Aulick remained in Tirza-Fiired. 
Strange to say, the Austrians had taken no steps to secure 
Szolnok, a place of great importance from its position on the 
Theiss. It was surprised by Damjanic and Yecsey, and the 
Austrians stationed there were partly dispersed and partly 
driven into the Zagyva, a confluent of the Theiss, with a 
loss of 500 prisoners, most of their cannon, military waggons, 
&c. This surprise was the beginning of a brilliant series of 
victories, by which the Austrians were rapidly forced to 
vacate the capital, and many of the upper districts of the 
country. At the same time Gorgei, who, in consequence of 
Yetter's illness, had now the chief command, coming up with 
the enemy at Erlau, drove him back upon Gyongos. There 
the imperial rearguard attempted to check the pursuing 



WINDISCHGRATZ ROUTED. CXU1 

Hungarians, and cover the retreat of the main body ; but 
were repulsed at the first attack, and sixteen pieces of 
artillery, two standards, twenty-one waggons of ammunition, 
and 1,400 prisoners fell into the hands of the Hungarians. 
The pursuit was continued along the road to Pesth. and 
after a running fight of six hours, the Austrians were driven 
beyond Hatvan. At Godollo, the last tenable post on that 
side of Pesth, the Austrians secured themselves from further 
pursuit by destroying the bridge ; and they took up a line 
of defence, which, after some changes, ultimately extended 
from Godollo to Tapiobicze. 

On the 4th of April, Tetter's corps, now led by Klapka, 
came up with the Austrian right wing at Tapiobicze, com- 
manded by Jellachich. Misinformed by his scouts as to the 
enemy's strength, Klapka incautiously ordered his whole 
army across the only bridge over the Tapio into the midst 
of an ambush prepared for them by Jellachich's entire corps. 
Klapka's Hungarians were panic-stricken, and Damjanic's 
opportune arrival alone saved them from a most disastrous 
defeat. In half an hour the Austrians saw all their advan- 
tages wrested from them, and were forced to retire from the 
village. By this victory the Hungarians had achieved the 
first step toward the grand strategical operation of flanking 
Godollo. Next day they came up with Jellachich's force, 
concentrated near Isaszeg, whose heights, covered by the 
intervening forests, and defended by batteries of 120 guns, 
were considered inexpugnable. Again was Jellacbich de- 
feated and the position seized. The battle for it had been a 
sharp one, and cost both sides a loss of several thousand in 
killed and wounded. 

On the morning of the 6th, the Hungarian right wing, 
under Gorgei, encountered the Austrians at Godollo, and took 
from them 3,200 prisoners, twenty-six cannons, seven stan- 
dards, and thirty-eight waggons of ammunition. The battle of 
Godollo is mentioned in the Austrian bulletins as one of 
Prince Windischgratz's " splendid successes." Its immediate 
result was the expeditious arrival of the imperial army on 
the plain of Rakos, in front of Pesth ; its retreat over the 
Danube, and the prince's recall from the scene of his defeat. 
With his return to Pesth his mission terminated, and he 
was invited by an imperial note to Olmiitz. 



CX1V HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

Whilst the Hungarian arms were thus victorious in the 
centre of the kingdom, fortune favoured them also in Tran- 
sylvania, where Bern's feeble force had before been unable to 
withstand Puchners 15,000 disciplined Austrians. 

The Saxons and Wallachs, who form the bulk of the 
population in Transylvania, were from the first hostile to the 
Mag} ars, whose cause was espoused by the other section of 
the inhabitants, the Szeklers, a wild and warlike race, who 
placed themselves under the command of Bern. This force 
Bern soon organized and disciplined ; and being reinforced 
by some troops that had evacuated the fortress of Arad, he 
was in a few weeks in a condition to resume the offensive at 
the head of 20,000 men. Falling first on General Gideon, 
who was at Bistritz with 6,000 Austrians and Wallachs, he 
drove him into Bukowina, and cut him off entirely ftom the 
main body of the army. Thereupon General Puchner, who was 
then in the Saxon district, applied for aid to General Liiders, 
the commander of the Russian army in Wallachia, who sent 
6,000 men to Hermanstadt, and 4,000 to Kronstadt. But 
Bern soon swept Russians and Austrians alike out of Tran- 
sylvania. 

After sustaining a severe defeat at Deva, Puchner re- 
treated to Hermanstadt, but left it soon after for Maros- 
Vasarhely, on hearing a false report of an insurrection. Bern 
immediately marched against the Russian force at Herman- 
stadt, defeated an Austrian corps on his way, beat the 
Russians, and made himself master of Hermanstadt. Puch- 
ner returned thither only to see his forces seized with a 
panic, under the influence of which their members dwindled 
down in a few hours from 8,000 to 2,000. Bern next 
entered Kronstadt without firing a shot ; and with the 
exception of the garrison of Klausenberg, and a few thousand 
Wallach partisans in the mountains, he was undisputed 
master of Transylvania. 

On the 8th of April, two days after the battle of Godollo, 
the Hungarian forces divided, one portion of them being 
led off by Gorgei to the relief of Komorn, and the other 
remaining under Dembinski to keep watch upon Pesth. On 
the 9th, Gorgei carried Waitzen by storm, defeating 12,000 
Austrians under Generals Czoric and Gotz, the latter of whom 
was killed in the fight. He then pursued his march towards 



TOTAL DEFEAT OF THE INVADERS. CXV 

Komorn, and was suffered to throw a temporary bridge over 
the rapid and swollen Gran, and to cross that stream without 
obstruction on the 18th. On the following day he was met 
by the Austrians under Wohlgemuth, in the neighbourhood 
of Nagy Sarlo. The two armies were nearly equal in 
numbers, and both being commanded by able generals, 
the battle, which began at early morning, was hotly con- 
tested, and was not decided until the evening, when the 
Austrians retreated, abandoning their camp to the victorious 
Hungarians, who pursued their march without more inter- 
ruption to Komorn. 

The new Austrian commander-in-chief, Field-Marshal 
Lieutenant Welden, had meanwhile arrived at the seat of 
war. Erroneously supposing that the main efforts of the 
Hungarians would be directed against Pesth, his first measures 
were devoted to the defence of that city. But finding hi3 
mistake, and that the Hungarians had moved higher up the 
Danube, so as to threaten his communications with Vienna, 
he evacuated Pesth, and ordered Warbna and Schlick to 
follow them, prevent the relief* of Komorn, and keep the 
road open to Vienna. But this attempt was made too late ; 
for already, on the 20th of April, G-orgei had reached 
Komorn, repulsed that portion of the besiegei's who were 
on the left bank of the Danube, and thrown reinforcements 
of men and provisions into the fortress. After this it only 
remained for him to clear the right bank of the Danube, 
where was placed the main body of the Austrians, now rein- 
forced by the troops from Pesth, headed by the commander- 
in-chief. Throwing a bridge over the river, Gorgei stormed 
the Austrian intrenchments, and defeated Welden near New 
Szony, in a battle which decided the fate of the campaign. 
Next day the retreating Austrians were overtaken at Kaab, 
where, having again suffered severely, they were driven over 
the frontier into Austria. About the same time the Hun- 
garians took Tyrnau ; Temesvar surrendered to Bern, and 
the whole of the Banat, the granary of Hungary, submitted 
to his authority. In short, Hungarian power was in the 
ascendant everywhere except in Buda, where the Austrians 
had left a garrison of six thousand men. 

After this splendid series of successes, nothing but the 
judicial blindness, or the perversity of their civil and military 



CXV1 HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

leaders, could have hindered the Hungarians from marching 
to Vienna, and dictating such a peace as would for ever 
have secured the liberties for which they fought. But the 
fateful opportunity was neglected by Gorgei, whilst Kossuth 
misused it for launching at the house of Habsburg, the blank 
thunder of a decree of dethronement. 

After the battle of Kapolna, Prince Windischgratz had 
despatched a bulletin to Vienna, in which, as usual, he 
greatly exaggerated the importance of his victory, and stated 
that the last Hungarian army had been beaten, and that the 
war was nearly at an end. On receipt of that intelligence, 
the emperor abruptly dissolved the Diet of Kremsier as 
incompetent to the task of framing a constitution ; and he 
bestowed on the empire, on the 4th of March, 1849, a charter 
drawn up by his minister, Count Stadion, which proclaimed 
the unity and indivisibility of the empire, the existence 
of separate, but of course powerless provincial diets, and the 
establishment of one central chamber at Vienna, by which 
the affairs of the empire were to be regulated. In fact, it 
was a decree which annulled, by a stroke of Count Stadion's 
pen, the ancient constitution of Hungary, extinguished its 
nationality, and reduced the kingdom to the condition of a 
mere province of Austria. All the other provisions of this 
mock constitution were merely illusory. Under the form of 
a boon to the whole empire, it was simply intended as an 
act of aggression upon the rights of Hungary, as is manifest 
from the fact that, when no longer needed for that purpose, 
it was wholly abrogated by an imperial decree of the 1st of 
January, 1852, and every semblance of liberty was destroyed 
that had thinly veiled the autocracy of Francis Joseph. 

It was in answer to this arbitrary act of the 4th of March, 
that Kossuth proposed and carried in the Diet a measure 
which entirely changed the character of the war, and con- 
tributed more than the combined arms of Austria and Russia 
to the ruin of his country. After three days 5 discussion with 
closed doors, and one in open session, the Diet, on the 14th 
of April, 1849, issued a proclamation embodying four reso- 
lutions, of which the second and fourth were as follows : — 

" The house of Habsburg Lorraine, having by treachery, 
perjury, and levying of war against the Hungarian nation, 
as well as by its outrageous violation of all compacts in 



HUNGARIAN DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. CXV11 

breaking up the integral territory of the kingdom in the 
separation of Transylvania, Croatia, Slavonia, Fiume and its 
districts from Hungary ; farther, by compassing the destruc- 
tion of the indepeDdence of the country by arms and by 
calling in the disciplined army of a foreign power for the 
purpose of annihilating its nationality, by violation both of 
the Pragmatic Sanction and of treaties concluded between 
Austria and Hungary, on which the alliance between the 
two countries depended ; are, as treacherous and perjured, for 
ever excluded from the throne of the united states of Hun- 
gary and Transylvania, and all their possessions and depen- 
dencies, and are hereby deprived of the style and title, as 
well as of the armorial bearings belonging to the crown of 
Hungary, and declared to be banished for ever from the 
united countries, and their dependencies and possessions. 
They are therefore declared to be deposed, degraded, and 
banished for ever from the Hungarian territory. 

" The form of government to be adopted for the future 
will be fixed by the Diet of the nation. 

'- But until this point shall be decided on the basis of the 
foregoing and received principles, which have been recognised 
for ages, the government of the united countries, their pos- 
sessions and dependencies, shall be conducted on personal 
responsibility, and under the obligation to render an account 
of all acts, by Louis Kossuth, who has by acclamation, and 
with unanimous approbation of the Diet of the nation, been 
named governing president (Guhernator), and the ministers 
whom he shall appoint." 

It is hardly worth while to discuss the abstract justice of 
a measure so indefensible on the ground of policy. Aptly 
has it been remarked,* that, if dethronement was the just 
reward of the house of Habsburg for outraging the Hungarian 
constitution, this step should have been taken at the com- 
mencement of the war, and thus the nation would have 
known from the first for what it was fighting. Therefore, 
if judged by the mere justice of the case, the declaration 
came too late, and if viewed in the light of expediency, too 
early ; for it w T as a crowning provocation offered to the house 
of Habsburg. There was no medium now between sepa- 

* Edinburgh Review. 



CXVlll HTSTORY OF AUSTRTA. 

ration and subjugation. It was easy to foresee that Austria 
would accept the offers of her mighty ally, Russia, rather 
than descend from her position as a first-rate power in 
Europe, which would have been the inevitable consequence 
of the loss of Hungary. Russia had abundant reason to 
seize the first opportunity to humble her rival, and to crush 
at the same time that dangerous movement in Hungary, 
which served as an example for the Poles. Moreover, Russia 
had nothing to apprehend from any other foreign inter- 
vention, as the popular party was everywhere subdued, and 
there was no reason to anticipate that England or America 
would interfere in favour of the dethronement, since, having 
no diplomatic relations with Hungary, and at that time, like 
the rest of the world, being very ignorant of the merits of 
the case, they were not in the position to take the question 
in hand. 

A division in the army was another evil likely to follow 
the declaration of independence. Many of the officers in 
Gorgei's army had been in the Austrian service. They 
fought in obedience to the oath they had sworn to the con- 
stitution, but were by no means disposed to partake in a 
war against the dynasty of Austria. The measure carried 
with it not one advantage. It had no inspiring effect on the 
nation. It did not enlarge the means of defence ; on the con- 
trary, it diminished them. It increased the number and 
hostility of the enemies of Hungary, and there is no evidence 
that it gained one additional friend to the cause. Nation- 
ality and liberty were intelligible and eminently practical 
objects of the nation's desire, and so long as it contended for 
them it was victorious ; but when theories were set before 
it, when a negative idea, the dethronement of the royal 
house, was held up as the reward of its exertions, from that 
moment the national movement began to decline, and the 
cause was lost. 

Having brought the conflict with Austria to an issue 
which precluded all possibility of compromise, the Hungarian 
government was bound in common prudence to follow up its 
advantages with redoubled ardour, and give no respite 
to its routed foes. After the victories of April, when the 
Austrian troops were flying and disorganized, and but two 
davs' march intervened between Gorgei and Vienna, there 



THIRD INVASION OF HUNGARY. CX1X 

remained no force in the Austrian empire, except the army 
of Radetzki in Italy, which could have offered him any 
serious resistance. The capital and the empire were at his 
mercy. Had he marched with the bulk of his force upon 
Vienna, as he was ordered, he might there have dictated his 
own terms, and for ever rendered harmless all threats of 
Russian intervention. Instead of doing so, he sent only a 
few thousand men in pursuit of the enemy, and marched 
with the greatest part of his troops to besiege Buda, where 
the Austrians had left a garrison merely as a bait to lure 
the Hungarians from the proper object of their operations. 
Isolated in the heart of a hostile country, the garrison of 
Buda was incapable of doing mischief, and might without 
detriment have been suffered to remain until a more con- 
venient season. After a three weeks' siege the fortress was 
taken by a brilliant assault. Austria had saved her capital 
at the expense of a most intrepid garrison ; and in the 
mean time her forces were reorganised, and a Russian army 
had assembled on the frontier. 

Thus was lost through Gorgei's disobedience, the decisive 
moment on which hung the destinies of his country ; and 
for that disobedience a pretext and an opportunity had been 
furnished by Kossuth. The president had accompanied the 
army in its march from the Theiss to Godollo ; and he 
quitted it before its work was finished, to go to Debreczin 
and urge upon the Diet his proposal for the deposition of 
the imperial family. He gave up the substance for the 
shadow. 



CHAPTER XL 

Third Invasion of Hungary. 1849. 

It was not until the middle of June that hostilities were 
resumed. After his splendid but fatal achievement at Buda, 
Gl-rgei still loitered inactively on the Waag during the 
long pause that ensued before the Austrians and Russians 
had concentrated their forces. The army of the former 
had received a new commander, Field-Marshal Lieutenant 
Haynau, already notorious for his savage deeds at Brescia, 



CXX HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

and destined to deeper infamy for those he was about to 
perpetrate in Hungary. The invaders mustered together 
nearly 400,000 men— 230,000 Austrians, and 160,000 Rus- 
sians — and were distributed as follows : — 

The first army corps (Austro-Russian), under Haynau, 
entering Hungary at Preshurg, advanced in the direction of 
the capital, Buda Pesth. 

The second (Russian), under Prince Paskieviteh, crossing 
the Gallician frontier at Dukla, marched upon Debreczin. 

The third (Austro-Russian), under Puchner, entering 
Transylvania from the north, stormed Bistricz and moved 
upon Klausenburg. 

The fourth (Russian), under Liiden, entering Transyl- 
vania from the south, through the Tomos pass, took Krons- 
tadt and marched upon Hermanstadt. 

The fifth (Russian), entering at Orsova, advanced to join 
Jellachich and his Austro-Croatian army, operating in the 
territory between the Danube and the Theiss. 

According to Kossuth's statement, the Hungarian forces 
at this time amounted to 140,000 men, of whom 45,000 
formed Gorgei's corps ; there were 30,000 in the Banat, and 
40,000 under Bern in Transylvania. Kossuth's plan of 
defence was to concentrate all the armies either on the 
Upper Danube or within the Theiss, so as to act from a 
central position on the isolated bodies of the enemy. Had 
Kossuth been a general, or had Gorgei obeyed him, this 
plan might have been successful. At least it might have 
been possible to protract the campaign until September, 
when the periodical fevers would have rendered the interior 
of the country untenable for the invaders. But no system 
of defence could have saved a country foredoomed by the 
disunion among its leaders. The generals were all jealous of 
each other, and of the civil governor. As for Gorgei, he 
hated Kossuth with a rancour which he seeks to justify in 
his memoirs on public grounds, but in which there evidently 
mingled a large share of personal envy. Kossuth was aware 
of this ; he knew that the safety of the state required 
Gorgei's removal from his command ; but instead of bringing 
the disobedient general to a court-martial, he temporised 
from mistaken notions of policy, and affected towards him a 
confidence he did not feel. Gorgei did more than this ; in 



GORGEIS INSUBORDINATION. CXX1 

his relations with the government he descended to direct 
treachery, like those Austrians officers who accepted the 
commissions of the Hungarian ministry ; intending to betray 
it. In his address to the army, dated Koniorn, 29th of 
April, 1849, Gorgei openly approved the declaration of 
independence at the very moment when, as he himself tells 
us, he purposed to compel the Diet by force of arms to 
revoke that act. 

Gorgei began offensive operations by pushing forward, 
across the Waag and the Neuhausler Danube, some small 
corps, which were repulsed in several engagements from the 
16th to the 20th of June. On the latter day he took the 
command in person at Szered, where he defeated the 
Austrians ; but on the coming up of the Russian reserve 
he was compelled to fall back on Komorn, whence with 
sarcastic complacency he gave notice to the government at 
Pesth that it must speedily leave the capital, as he was 
unable to cover it. On the 27th the allies carried Eaab, the 
garrison retreating with little loss to vKomorn, where the 
Hungarians were attacked in their entrenchments by Hay- 
nau on the 2nd of July, but without success. Gorgei 
behaved that day with the temerity of one who courted death. 
He was wounded in the head by a sabre cut, but the balls 
seemed to avoid the general whilst they decimated those 
around him. On the evening after this successful stand 
against the enemy, despatches arrived from the Hungarian 
government, ordering that Gorgei should be removed from 
the chief command, because he had refused, at the frequent 
and pressing instances of the government, to march with his 
troops to Pesth, but had persisted in remaining uselessly 
about Komorn, while the capital was abandoned to the 
enemy. Unfortunately for the Hungarian cause, Gorgei' s 
heroic conduct on that day had so confirmed the confidence 
reposed in him by his officers, that it was unanimously 
resolved in a council of war that he alone should lead them. 
The government was obliged to acquiesce, and thenceforth 
Gorgei acted independently of all control. 

His only course now was to unite his forces with the 
armies on the central plain of Hungary, and act thence on 
the various invading bodies marching in from the circum- 
ference. He waited, however, until it was too late, and 



CXX11 HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

failed in a grand attempt to break through the Austrian 
lines on the south. The only other outlet was through the 
Russian forces on the east. By some masterly manoeuvres, 
and after a sanguinary battle at Waitzen on the 13th of 
July, he succeeded in turning the Russian lines, and retreat- 
ing into the Carpathians. " During this battle," says Kos- 
suth, " General Perczel was only a few miles distant, and 
Gorgei neither wrote nor sent." 

After this, succeeded one of the most ably conducted 
retreats on record. With enemies hemming him in on 
every side, Gorgei baffled them, turned their positions, made 
his retreat a means of attack, and often overwhelmed them 
with assaults from the quarter whence they least expected 
them. Twice during this masterly retreat he might have 
united his force with the Hungaran army on the plain within 
the Theiss, and have saved Hungary. About the 20th of 
July, when Gorgei was at Putnok, Paskievitch was at 
Miskolcz, just half way between him and Dembinski, who 
was at Solnok on the Theiss with the new army of thirty 
thousand men intrusted to his command. Had the two 
Hungarian generals acted in concert, they might have 
annihilated the main Russian army, which was attenuated 
by its dispersion over a great extent of ground, and disabled 
by the ravages of the cholera, which was carrying off thou- 
sands daily. Again the same thing might have been done 
when Gorgei was at the Hern ad, where he commanded the 
only two passages over the Theiss, those at Tisza Fured and 
at Tokay. A junction between the two generals at that time 
would not have failed to prolong the war until the period of 
the fatal Theiss fevers, which begin in those marshy plains 
in September, and which no foreigner can withstand. Gorgei 
wilfully neglected both opportunities, and at length crossed 
the Theiss when it was too late. 

Again, when near Debreczin, he refused all aid to the 
heroic little body under Nagy Shandor, making their 
desperate stand against the Russians — 8.000 men against 
80,000. He was well aware of the attack which awaited 
Nagy Shandor, whom he had detached from his own corps 
for no other conceivable reason than his hatred of the man 
he thus exposed to destruction ; for Nagy Shandor had 
openly declared that " if there was a man in Hungary who 



BATTLE OF TEMESVAR. CXxiii 

aspired to be a Csesar, he would himself be his Brutus." 
" To-morrow, Nagy Shandor will get a dressing," was 
Gorgei's remark to his staff on the evening preceding the 
engagement. 

Meanwhile Dembinski, who had been defeated by Haynau 
at Szoreg, instead of retreating, as he was ordered to do, 
upon the Hungarian fortress of Arad, which would have 
afforded him a safe point d'appui, and where he must have 
met Gorgei, directed his course to Temesvar, which was 
still in Austrian hands. There he was overtaken by Haynau 
and Jellachich. and the last battle of the war was fought on 
the 9th of August. Bern, who had been overpowered by 
superior numbers, and forced to evacuate Transylvania, 
arrived at Temesvar in time to take the chief command, to 
which he had meantime been appointed. The battle began in 
the morning, and for some hours the Hungarians had the ad- 
vantage. The Austro-Russian cavalry, reserves and all, were 
brought forward to the number of twelve thousand, but 
were driven back in the utmost disorder by Guyon's seven 
thousand hussars. Bern continued to advance with his left 
wing till half-past four o'clock, driving the enemy from 
position to position. At this time the victory of the Hun- 
garians seemed assured, and Haynau, it is said, had already 
fled from the field, when suddenly Bern's cannon ceased. He 
had gone into action without discovering that part of his 
ammunition had been sent off the preceding night to Arad. 
Prince Lichtenstein now charged the Hungarian right wing, 
and retrieved the day. Guyon made a last gallant effort 
with Ins hussars to capture the Austro-Russian artillery ; 
but men and horses had been without food and forage for 
twenty-four hours ; the attempt failed, and all was lost. 
The Hungarian army retreated unpursued, but in passing 
through a forest at night, they were seized with a panic, and 
dispersed in all directions. On the following morning not a 
thousand men could be got together. 

The disaster at Temesvar gave Gorgei the opportunity he 
had long sought, to gratify his personal resentments at the 
cost of his country and of the brave soldiers that had so 
trusted and loved him. When the news of the defeat 
reached the government, then sitting at Arad, Gorgei was 
there also, intriguing to obtain the dictatorship, that he 



CXX1V HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

might surrender to the Russians ; for with characteristic 
pride, he had always said he would fight till the last man 
was killed rather than surrender to the Austrians — the 
enemy whom he had conquered. To facilitate his design, he 
had craftily diffused a report that Russia was willing to 
establish a constitutional monarchy under a Russian prince, 
and to turn her arms, if necessary, against Austria. Thus 
he prepared the minds of the other generals to follow his 
own example without distrust. He now declared that he 
could yet save Hungary if the government would commit 
the whole military and civil power into his hands, but that 
he neither could nor would do so on any other terms. The 
urgency of the case allowed of no delay. An informal 
council was held, in which the ministry sent in their resig- 
nation to the governor; but three of them, Duschek, Szemere, 
and Casimir Batthyany were not present at the meeting. 
Kossuth then signed an abdication in favour of Gorgei, and 
sent it to them for their signature, " accompanying it," says 
Yucovics, " with certain conditions, as that Gorgei m ist 
preserve the independence and nationality of Hungary." 
But the new dictator immediately issued a proclamation, 
desiring the Hungarians to retire each man to his home, and 
offer no further resistance to the enemy. At the same time 
he dismissed the general levy, and sent a letter to General 
Budiger, stating that he was ready to lay down his arms un- 
conditionally. " At that moment," says Gorgei,* " I might 
indeed have retreated from Arad by way of Badna into 
Transylvania ; but " — what hindered him *? — " my affection 
for my country, and my desire to restore it to peace at any 
price, induced me to surrender !" The preliminaries for this 
act of infamy were concluded at Yilagos on the night of the 
12th of August ; and on the following day, an unconquered 
Hungarian army, twenty-four thousand strong, with a 
hundred and forty-four canons, laid down their arms before 
the Bussians. 

The fortresses of Arad and Peterwardein soon afterwards 
surrendered afc discretion ; but Klapka still held out in 
Komorn. Emboldened by two successful sallies made in 
July, he had assumed the offensive on the 1st of August, 

* Letter to Klapka, August 16. 



CAPITULATION OF KOMORN. CXXV 

and issuing from the fortress, had routed the besiegers with 
great slaughter, captured, an enormous booty of provisions 
and ammunition, retaken Baab, and swept that part of the 
country clear of the imperialist forces. His success excited 
great alarm in Yienna, which was thus exposed to his 
assaults, with only eight thousand men to defend it, whilst 
a victorious army of twenty thousand men held the country 
in Haynau's rear, cutting off his lines of communication 
with Austria. After, six days spent in Raab in raising 
recruits, and completing his preparations, Klapka was about 
to march on the night of the 11th to invade Styria. This 
was on the very day that Gorgei became dictator. But the 
intended expedition was abandoned in consequence of the 
alarming intelligence received in the evening from beyond 
the Theiss, and Klapka returned with his forces to Koraorn. 
The fortress was now invested by the whole Austrian force, 
and after many debates in council of war, it capitulated on 
the 29th of September, the stipulations being, that the 
garrison should be allowed to secure a portion of its pay, 
and retire unmolested in person or property. These con- 
ditions were held towards the officers, but broken as re- 
garded the soldiers, who were forcibly drafted into the 
imperial army. The capitulation is said to have been 
brought about by double-dealing. The principal motive 
which induced the victorious garrison to surrender, was the 
assurance given them by the Austrian negotiators, that the 
emperor waited but for that act to show clemency to their 
captive companions in arms and to their countrymen in 
general. In corroboration of this assurance, it was alleged 
that the emperor had sent Count Griinne, his own 
adjutant-general, to Arad, to stop the execution of the 
sentences of death which had been passed by the courts- 
martial sitting in that fortress. But Klapka and his men 
were not told that this seeming act of grace was only 
a lure ; that the executioner's hands were stayed only 
until Komorn should have fallen ; not a man of them was 
aware that the only reason Haynau had for urging the 
capitulation, was his desire to execute the bloody sentences 
against the doomed patriots with impunity, # Hence they 

* Klapka's Letter to Haynau, dated London, Feb. 6, 1850. 



CXXV1 HISTORY OF AUSTRIA. 

consented to claim amnesty only for themselves, and not for 
the whole country ; therein yielding to the assurances of the 
Austrian negotiators that the latter stipulation was super- 
fluous, and to their representations that the acceptance of 
such a condition for the surrender of a fortress would be in- 
compatible with the dignity of the emperor. 

And now the savage executioner of Brescia began his 
congenial work of cold-blooded butchery. First came the 
scourging of Hungarian ladies, forced to run the gauntlet 
half-naked between two lines of Austrian soldiers, armed 
with rods. Next occurred the execution of generals and 
officers. Gorged had obtained his pardon, by desire of the 
emperor of Russia ; but whilst the chief was spared, no 
mercy was shown to his subordinates. Thirteen generals and 
field-officers were hanged or shot at Arad on the 6th of 
October. Ten ministers and civil officers were executed 
soon afterwards ; and it is computed that more than a 
thousand gentlemen of station and character died by rope or 
lead in Hungary that year under Austrian hands. The 
colonels and majors of the Hungarian army were sentenced 
to imprisonment for eighteen and sixteen years respectively, 
or to serve as privates in the Austrian ranks; and the landed 
aristocracy were visited unsparingly with fines and confis- 
cations. 

Immediately after Kossuth's resignation, himself and 
several other civil and military leaders, with about five 
thousand officers and soldiers, escaped over the Turkish 
frontier, and took refuge in Widdin. The emperors of 
Russia and Austria demanded the extradition of the re- 
fugees. This was peremptorily refused by the Sultan, whom 
Sir Stratford Canning, the British ambassador, encouraged 
by his advice to persist in that determination. The emperor 
of Russia reiterated the demand in menacing language ; but 
the appearance of a British fleet in the Dardanelles, whether 
fortuitous or designed, induced him to lower his tone. The 
two emperors now contented themselves with requiring that 
the exiles should be removed to a more distant part of the 
Turkish empire. They were transferred accordingly to 
Kutayah, where they remained until the middle of the year 
1851, when the government of the United States sent a 
man-of-war, which, with the Sultan's consent, conveyed 



HER CONDITION SINCE 1849. CXXvii 

away Kossuth and his companions, except a certain number 
of them who had made a voluntary profession of Islamism. 

More than three years have now elapsed since Austria 
bartered her independence for a renewal of her old system of 
absolutism and centralization, and acquired the power to 
extinguish the ancient immunities of Hungary at the cost 
of her own vassalage to Russia. In all that time she has 
not made the slightest progress towards the consolidation of 
her factitious greatness. She subsists only by virtue of a 
permanent state of siege and martial law. Her subject 
populations, who rose against her in 1849, are more dis- 
affected than ever, and she has alienated the very races 
that then took up arms in her defence. Her despotism 
rests on no saving basis of a common nationality ; no 
inward -vitality binds together the heterogeneous elements 
of her empire ; the prestige of her might is gone, the sanc- 
tuary of her authority has been profaned, her weakness 
made manifest, the mechanism of her power laid bare. She 
maintains her state by terrorism alone, the most precarious 
of all tenures. 



t2 



GENESIS 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



There are no abrupt transitions in nature. This axiom 
holds good in the moral as well as in the physical world. 

When, therefore, a Constituent Parliament, composed of 
democratic elements, was observed in Austria, in the month 
of July, 1848, by the side of the throne (which in the pre- 
ceding month of March was still absolute), laying claim to 
the sovereignty, and that, too, before the chasm between 
those two conditions of government had been bridged over 
by a popular victory, the question at once suggested itself, 
how this change could so suddenly have taken place. 

It is the task of this work to show that even in this 
case the unchangeable laws of nature maintained their 
course, inasmuch as the phenomena of the year 1848 were 
only the result of long-subsisting causes, which at length 
became evident to all. 

The title of these leaves (Genesis) will indicate that they 
are not intended to be either a chronicle or a minute detail 
of the events of the period. They enter on historical ground 
only when such a course appears necessary to accomplish 
their design, which is to explain the original causes of the 
change of circumstances alluded to. 

The first motto upon the title-page indicates the intention 
to maintain a strict impartiality. 

The second motto will justify the boldness with which, 
without regard to the approbation of any party, it has been 
attempted to discharge the duty resulting from the first. 

Should this work succeed in removing from the public 
mind those prejudiced views which, in a time of political 
excitement, partisans are accustomed to form concerning 
both things and individuals, and so correct the errors and 
injustice which result from such opinions, its object will 
have been attained. 

In order to prevent the reader from being misled by the 



CXXX11 AUTHORS PREFACE. 

name of the author, and from perusing these leaves with a 
mind prejudiced either in favour of or against the views they 
maintain, the writer has thought it better to preserve an 
incognito. He is conscious of his honourable determination 
to observe strict truth in the circumstances he relates. 
Should he have given admission to any erroneous statements, 
he will cheerfully adopt their correction, for the sake of truth, 
and will rejoice at the opportunity for such correction being 
afforded to him. Wherever he has expressed an opinion, he 
has obeyed the voice of his own conviction. He is reluctant, 
however, to force his own opinions upon any one, and there- 
fore he is not disposed to engage in a polemical dispute with 
those who differ from him. 

The topics treated of in this work have been already 
discussed in other quarters, — for example, by Philipps and 
Gorres in the 21st and 22nd numbers of a brochure styled 
" The Historical and Political Pamphlet for Catholic Ger- 
many ;" also by F. von B., in a work called " A Review of 
the Political Commotion in Austria in the Year 1848 ;" and 
in several other ephemeral publications in which this last 
book is criticised. Again, a work by Count Leo Thun, in the 
Bohemian language, called, " Reflections on the Present 
State of Things, with particular Relation to Bohemia," is 
partly occupied with the same subject. The Genesis was 
already finished when these pamphlets met the eye of the 
author, and he has not found himself obliged by their con- 
tents to alter what he had previously written. Should the 
reader, therefore, detect in these pages any resemblance with 
the sentiments of other writers, he must attribute the cir- 
cumstance, not to plagiarism, but to the irresistible power of 
truth ; and should he, on the other hand, discover any 
points of difference, he must not consider this work as a 
polemical essay. 

The judgments passed in these pages upon individuals 
have relation only to their political character as it has been 
evinced by their public conduct. 

The mention of names notorious on the political stage has 
been found necessary for the object of this work, and has 
appeared at least as unobjectionable as the affected conceal- 
ment of the mere name, accompanied, however, by a sketch of 
the individual through the medium of a transparent descrip- 



AUTHORS PREFACE. CXXX111 

tion. The names of persons, however, are not mentioned, 
who have remained secluded from public life, and at a dis- 
tance from the eye of the world. 

In estimating the merits of this work, the reader will bear 
in mind that it is not a state document ; that it is not com- 
posed by a man of letters for the perusal of the mere learned, 
but the work of one unknown to the literary world — a mere 
quiet observer of the passing events of the age — and has 
been written for those whose tastes resemble his own, 
"absque ird et studio? indeed, but nevertheless in a style 
which, by means of a lively colouring imparted to the narra- 
tive, seemed adapted to soften in some measure the sober 
seriousness of the subject, and dissipate the tedium of the 
reader. 

August, 1849. 



PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. 



The first edition of the " Genesis" was sold in a few 
weeks. The voice of the critic had not yet reached the 
author during the preparation of the second edition. He 
has become acquainted with it by this time, and thinks it 
his duty to pay it regard as far as it tends to promote the 
object of this work, which seeks to enlighten the judgment of 
the world on one of the least expected of catastrophes which 
have ever shattered the foundations of a great state. All 
observations on the " Genesis" which have appeared in public 
journals or in pamphlets, and have illustrated the events of 
the year 1848, whether proceeding from the pen of friend 
or of foe, have been welcome to the author. 

There are three publications which demand especial notice 
on occasion of the present edition. The first is the review 
of " Genesis" in the " Historical Papers for Catholic Germany 
for 1850," numbers I. and II., by G. Philipps and G. Gorres 
(Historische Blatter far das Katholische Deutschland). This 
review bears the marks of having been written by a practised 
observer, in high position and of great experience in the 
affairs of the world. The second is a pamphlet of 73 pages, 
large octavo, published in 1850 by T. N. Passy, at St. Polteu, 
and by P. Pohrmann, bookseller to the court at Vienna. 
Its title is, " The Estates of Lower Austria and the Genesis 
of the Eevolution in Austria in 1848." The anonymous 
author of this pamphlet declares, at page 2, that he has 
taken up a "party position, and closely and sincerely sym- 
pathizes with the acts of the Estates of Lower Austria.''' That 
declaration is important, as it renders it possible to complete 
the description of the events of March, by citing several 
facts which, in the absence of a guarantee on behalf of the 
party of the Estates itself, did not previously seem suitable 
for publication. The third treatise, by L. Count Ficquel- 
mont, entitled, " Illustrations of the Period from the 20th of 
March to the 4th of May, 1848" (Aufklarungen liber die 



PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. CXXXV 

Zeit vom 20 M'arz bis zum 4 Mai, 1848), was published in 
1850 by J. A. Barth, at Leipzig and by Fr. Beck, bookseller 
to the University at Vienna. The " Genesis" is not in terms 
alluded to in this work, though its author, a statesman, in 
every respect honourable, who furnishes us with elucidations 
derived from the fountain-head, seems to have been induced 
by the " Genesis" to make the grant of the constitution of 
the 25th of April, 1848, the subject of a very careful inves- 
tigation, which could not be passed over in silence in the 
present edition. 

Yoices have been raised here and there which have pro- 
nounced the " Genesis" to be a party work, called forth by 
those who were in authority before March, as a means of vin- 
dicating their honour. It would have been especially flatter- 
ing to the author, if those personages had intrusted to his pen 
the task of vindicating their honour. However, it is not, and 
for this simple reason could not be, the fact, — because states- 
men, who were unwilling to sacrifice their inward convictions 
to fashionable theories and to popular favour, might perhaps 
endanger the shining diadem of glory and the golden wreath 
of fortune, but never that precious jewel — honour. The 
author wrote under the impulse of no other motive than the 
desire of furnishing to future impartial historians intimations 
from other sources than those from which the swarm of 
publications of the present day have originated. 

The new materials have been added in the shape of notes, 
as they allow of comparative glances at the present without 
interrupting the descriptions of the past. Whatever judg- 
ment the reader may form from such comparisons, we beg of 
him to keep in mind, that those who are now occupied with 
the task of re-erecting the Austrian state edifice are not to 
be reproached for the troublesome dust occasioned by the 
removal of the rubbish, and for the comfortless damp and 
chilliness pervading the new-built halls, which have not been 
allowed time to dry. Such are the inevitable consequences 
of rebuilding. 



GENESIS 

OF THE 

REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 



CHAPTEE I. 

The sea roars from the west : the storm impels the billows 
against the harbour wall : the latter bids them a proud de- 
fiance ; some few waves with difficulty reach the summit, and 
appear on the broad parapet which protects the pier, to glide 
away without a trace. Within the harbour, too, the calm 
water-level is disturbed by smaller waves, that portend no 
danger : when suddenly the wall bursts asunder, the tide 
rushes fiercely in and inundates the shore, scattering destruc- 
tion wide around. 

"With astonishment and wonder, the spectator beholds the 
fragments of the ruined wall which he had deemed imperish- 
able — he marks how the waves, which appeared to flow off 
from the surface, had gradually formed a channel through 
the crevices of the outer-works, and as the inner stones were 
already secretly penetrated and decayed, how they had 
reached the foundation of the wall, so that its destruction 
became inevitable. 

So it happened with Austria. The revolution raged in 
the west. The Austrian Government conceived that as she 

B 



Z GENESIS OF THE 

had once formed the bulwark of European civilization against 
the encroachments of barbarian Mahometanism, so she might 
now stand firm as a defence against the propaganda of the 
revolution. The sincere loyalty of the people to the imperial 
dynasty, the influence of habit, the sense of comfort arising 
from the secure administration of the laws, the tender 
anxiety for the commercial interests which developed them- 
selves more and more every year, these were regarded as the 
firm foundation of this defence, while the regulations of the 
police to prevent the circulation of revolutionary doctrines 
by word or writing furnished a protecting complement to the 
work; but these measures, though competent, apparently, 
to suppress hostile manifestations of discontent, could not 
prevent its gradual increase. Moreover, the very foundation 
itself had been already shaken by the internal attacks which 
the government had to sustain from the hand of one, who 
now showed as much anxiety to divide her authority, as she 
had exhibited for the same purpose some centuries before — 
and hence arose the crash on the 13th of March. 

The catastrophe of the days of March astonished all parties, 
both the government and the governed. By the first it was 
not apprehended, by the latter it was not expected in the 
way in which it actually occurred. Accordingly, both parties 
.entered wholly unprepared into new reciprocal relations with 
each other. Errors on the one side and exaggerated demands 
on the other must have been expected by all reflecting men, 
as the consequence of such a sudden change, but the event 
unfortunately exceeded all anticipations. 

The inundation which, in the month of March, gave up 
the otherwise happy territory of Austria a prey to the de- 
vastation of the raging waves, was prepared through a 
long course of previous years, partly by circumstances, and 
partly by design. 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTKIA. 6 

Since the time when Jean Jacques Rousseau first published 
his theory of a " Social Contract/' a party has always ex- 
isted in every civilised country, opposed to the absolute 
power of monarchs. In France, in consequence of some 
peculiarly favourable circumstances, this party first achieved 
the overthrow of the throne and the altar. Even at 
that time, it was not without adherents in Austria, but 
the seed fell upon a soil not yet sufficiently prepared for 
it. The reforms of the Emperor Joseph, in advance of the 
spirit of the age, partook of a philosophical, but at the 
same time of an absolute character, and while they had 
alleviated the most crying evils of the people, they had also 
extended the power of the sovereign. The mass of the people, 
therefore, felt no sympathy for the revolution, while the 
government was in full possession of all the public and private 
resources to suppress any attempt at a popular insurrection. 
It happened, by a dispensation of Providence not unfavour- 
able for the propagation of the principles of the French revo- 
lution in the eighteenth century, that at the time when that 
revolution was in preparation, the sceptres of Prussia and of 
Austria were wielded by two monarchs who were philosophers, 
and at the same time despots in the strictest meaning of 
the word. The ovations which were offered to both these 
rulers by the national heroes of the new era, could be no 
more than mere irony, if they did not arise from the most 
complete thoughtlessness. After the days of March in Vienna, 
the mad joy of the mob at their success in having obtained 
for the people the right to carry arms, the freedom of the press, 
and the restraint of the absolute monarch within the limits 
of a constitution, induced them to proceed to the equestrian 
statue of Joseph, in order to place a crown on that emperor's 
head. Must not every cool and well-informed spectator 
have asked himself at that moment, what would have been 

B 2 



\ 



4 GENESIS OF THE 

tlie answer of that highly-honoured monarch to his joyous 
worshippers, if his spirit could then but have animated his 
statue ? Would not the ponderous weight of his brazen arm 
have crushed them in indignation at their achievements 1 

The unimpaired powers of government bequeathed by 
Joseph and Frederic to their successors rendered it possible 
for the latter, at the outbreak of the first French revolu- 
tion, to resist throughout their own kingdoms the spirit of 
enthusiasm, which was partially awakened in particular 
classes of society in favour of " freedom and equality." The 
course which that revolution took subsequently, destroyed 
the number of its foreign adherents, since it became evident 
that its public boastings in favour of the rights of man were 
mere absurdity, inasmuch as such privileges were only valu- 
able to the adherents of the ruling party for the time being, 
its opponents finding their freedom in exile, and their 
equality in being condemned to the guillotine. The bloody 
war of conquest carried on by the young republic completely 
alienated from her all hearts in Austria ; for when one's own 
fire-side is threatened, every thought is directed to avert the 
apprehended danger, and for the moment, the dreams of 
freedom and equality vanish into air. The people gladly 
beheld the conversion of the French Republic into an empire, 
and the thrones of Europe had no farther cause to fear being 
overturned by their own subjects. But, on the other hand, the 
thirst for conquest which seized the Emperor of the French, 
threatened the ruling dynasties with the loss of their crowns. 
In this extremity they grasped at a means of safety, power- 
ful, no doubt, in its operation, but on whose effects it was 
impossible to reckon ; namely, to awaken the sentiment of 
independence amongst their people, and array them in oppo- 
sition to the conqueror of the world. Napoleon fell ! After 
his fall, the spirit whose aid had been invoked, was not allayed. 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. D 

It turned against the very power by which it had been aroused. 
The thirty-four years which had elapsed since the banishment 
of Napoleon to Saint Helena present the picture of a perpetual 
contest with this spirit. The Governments which have been 
exposed to this struggle, have pursued different lines of con- 
duct. Some have thought to escape the difficulty, by im- 
posing voluntary restraints on the absolute powder of the 
crown, and by adopting a constitutional form of government, 
modelled in such a fashion that the power of the sovereign 
with regard to the framing of laws and the imposition of 
taxes is controlled by hereditary and elective representative 
estates, while the other privileges of the government remain 
untouched, and the maxim of the sovereignty of the people 
never came under discussion. Others adopted the notion 
that the authority of government, when divided, and con- 
sequently weakened by division, is less capable of defending 
itself than when it remains strong and undivided, whereupon 
they allowed no limit to be placed to the authority of the 
monarch, but endeavoured to maintain this power unimpaired, 
by every means which stood at their command. The events 
of the year 1848 have proved that both these plans have 
failed in their object, since the people ruled by constitutional 
laws, no less than the people living under a despotic govern- 
ment, have endeavoured to usurp the sovereign authority for 
themselves. 

In Austria and Prussia the last-mentioned course was 
followed. Its adoption laid the foundation of the so-called 
" Metternich system." In order to act consistently, the 
advocates of this system were obliged to oppose all 
concessions tending to diminish the authority of the 
monarch, not only at home, but abroad, since, where 
power is the question, popular coalitions can exist as 
well as coalitions of princes. It was a herculean task to 



b GENESIS OF THE 

struggle against the spirit of the age, which animated the 
people. Single-handed, no government could accomplish it 
effectually. As long as the two chief powers of Germany, 
Austria and Prussia, pursued the same course in union, the 
authority of government was maintained unimpaired. But 
as soon as the King of Prussia had determined to share this 
authority, though only in some trivial particulars, with a 
popular assembly, it became evident that the downfall of 
absolutism must soon be the result in both kingdoms ; since 
a principle of such importance, which enters deeply into all 
the relations of life, and offers homage to the spirit of the 
age, can never be affirmed in part, and negatived in part, 
according to the arbitrary fancy of the moment, but must 
either be rejected wholly or acknowledged wholly, with all its 
attendant consequences. The utter rejection, therefore, of 
the principle, involving a division of the sovereign power, 
which had been half acknowledged by the king of Prussia, 
was the problem reserved for Austria singly to solve, 
on the soil of Germany and in the west of Europe. The 
system of Metternich was applied to the solution of 
this problem. But its solution was not effected ; the 
system gave way. No sooner did it fail, than every voice 
was raised in its condemnation. It was pronounced exe- 
crable, and to its influence were attributed all those 
dreadful excesses which took place afterwards in the im- 
perial capital, as if this system had actually engendered 
the hostile force which it was unable to crush, instead of 
being in fact a bulwark raised against the very power by which 
it was eventually vanquished. An objection which might 
have been urged against it with greater justice, was its 
untenableness. This was acknowledged, on March 13th, by 
the man whose name it bore, and who sought to maintain 
it ; and he accordingly gave way before a superior power. A 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 7 

system of a wholly different nature was introduced, without 
the necessity of a previous contest with arms. The in- 
evitable course of events was allowed to pursue its way in 
peace. 

That it did not so happen — that six months later fire and 
sword raged in the heart of Austria, can only be ascribed to 
a failure of the new system, or to the errors of those who 
were summoned to execute it. 



GENESIS OF THE 



CHAPTER II. 

BEFORE THE MONTH OF MARCH, 1848. 

Having in a cursory manner described the origin of the 
general discontent, to which Austria had endeavoured to 
oppose herself as a barrier, it now becomes our task to 
explain by what means it happened that the advancing 
influence of the spirit of the age succeeded in effecting a 
gradual diminution of that resisting power, which the Aus- 
trian Government considered itself to possess. This diminu- 
tion of power was not the work of a recent period. Its origin 
is to be found in the peculiarities which existed in the heart 
of the monarchy for a long series of years, and which were 
already in full operation at the accession of the Emperor 
Ferdinand. We must, therefore, in the first place, take a 
glance at the government of the Emperor Francis. 



THE EMPEROR FRANCIS. 

The year 1816 was the culminating point of the imperial 
power, not only in a material, but more particularly in a 
moral point of view. The peace of Paris had made ample 
compensation for the losses which the monarchy had sus- 
tained since the outbreak of the first French revolution. 
The Emperor Francis commanded the highest esteem on 
account of his own personal merits, which had been displayed 
to the greatest advantage in conferences with many other 
monarchs and European personages in Paris and Vienna ; and 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 9 

he was honoured as a sage. The love of his people, who 
had ever remained faithful to him in adversity, was bestowed 
upon him in increased measure when he suddenly became 
the favourite of fortune ; and the well-grounded expectations 
of a happy future excited his subjects even to enthusiasm. 
The rich countries which had lately become annexed to the 
monarchy, the enormous sums which France had been con- 
demned to pay, and the certain duration of a long peace, 
seemed to offer a complete security for the diminution of 
the state burdens, and for the establishment of content and 
prosperity. These hopes, however, were not realised in 
their fullest extent. A disastrous system of finance, founded 
on a mere delusion — the extinction of the old national debt — 
increased annually the burden of interest due by the state, 
without furnishing by way of compensation any new capital 
to open fresh sources of national wealth ; a bigoted attach- 
ment to whatever was established, closed the door against 
such improvements in the legislative or executive depart- 
ments as were suitable to the exigencies of the times ; and 
even when a conviction of the necessity of reforms was 
acknowledged, they were delayed, or their effect rendered 
nugatory by numerous doubts, and by endless discussions, 
as to whether, in place of the alteration proposed, some- 
thing better might not perhaps be substituted. The task 
which Austria had undertaken to accomplish, viz. to 
establish a barrier against the movement which a powerful 
party was directing from the west, in favour of the sove- 
reignty of the people, entailed upon her the necessity of 
mamtaining numerous and burdensome regulations of police, 
a system much less rigorously exercised even in Prussia, 
although that country was by no means disposed to renounce 
her absolute form of government, and far less strictly pursued 
in other countries, where the authorities had commenced a 



10 GENESIS OF THE 

course of concession in order to appease the temper of the 
disaffected; and hence it happened that from the com- 
parisons which were naturally instituted between these 
respective forms of governments, discontent was engendered 
in Austria, The different provincial states observed that 
similar bodies in other districts of Germany enjoyed a larger 
share in the executive and legislative functions than was 
conceded to them, and they panted to regain their old privi- 
leges. From these causes it happened that in the latter part 
of the reign of the Emperor Francis an inward feeling of 
discontent became general, which, though it might not have 
been loudly expressed, was nevertheless deeply rooted. 
During his lifetime these sentiments were counterbalanced 
by the sincere attachment and filial reverence to which his 
own personal worth had given birth. During a long series 
of years his subjects had shared with him feelings first of 
national humiliation, and subsequently of national rejoicing. 
They recognised and appreciated his deep sense of justice, and 
his plain and simple mode of living, and the peculiar appro- 
priateness of his answers to their prayers and grievances, 
which were always uttered in the most familiar tone, 
invested him with the influence of a popular chieftain. The 
judgment with which he selected his most intimate asso- 
ciates strengthened this sentiment, as in those cases where 
the brilliancy of the court was not so much concerned, as his 
own feelings of personal confidence, his choice generally fell 
upon individuals taken from amongst the ranks of the 
people. At the same time, however, it was well known 
that, notwithstanding his simple and unostentatious mode of 
life, he was inflexible in the maintenance of his sovereign 
authority, and that every assault upon it would be resisted 
by every means at his command ; no persons ventured, 
therefore, to exhibit in his presence either their discontent 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 11 

or the feelings which they nourished in their bosoms; 
on the contrary, they sought to conceal such emotions from 
his observation by the most joyous display of love and 
respect. The consequence, therefore, was, that the emperor 
remained wholly ignorant of the opinions of his subjects, and 
had no idea of the general feeling of ^vide-spread discontent 
which reigned in almost all classes of society ; but he lived 
under the illusion that the few expressions of dissatisfaction 
which reached his ears, were uttered by mere visionaries or 
by malevolent individuals. It is the misfortune of all those 
who hold power in their hands, that they never see mankind 
except in holiday apparel or in their holiday behaviour ; and 
this is the case no less with monarchs who are born heirs to 
the purple, than with rulers who have sprung from the ranks 
of the people. Mankind dissembled its sentiments before 
Cromwell as well as before King Charles; before Robespierre 
as well as before Louis, and no less before Napoleon. But 
even if the Emperor Francis had been acquainted with the 
sentiments of his people in their fullest extent, he was not the 
man ever to swerve from the groundwork of his system, which 
was termed the Metternich system, and which consisted in an 
unbending resistance to every effort to impose restraint upon 
his absolute authority, and this arose not so much from 
vanity as from the dictates of conscience. He was a reli- 
gious man, and considered it a duty of conscience to desire 
only what was good and right ; and every voluntary consent 
to weaken the authority placed in his hands by God, 
awakened his apprehension lest he might be impeded thereby 
in the discharge of those duties which he recognised as either 
good or right ; and he would, in fact, have considered his 
conscience burdened with all the weight of the good omitted 
or the evil committed against his conviction, which might 
have resulted from any diminution of his authority ; so that 



1-5 GENESIS OF THE 

if the force of circumstances had obliged him to renounce 
absolutism, as he had once been constrained to abandon 
provinces, and to offer up his daughter a sacrifice, as it were, 
to Moloch, he would probably have chosen to descend from 
the throne rather than to do outrage to his conscience and 
peril the salvation of his soul. This conscientiousness 
constituted his glory as a man, but at the same time was his 
misfortune as a ruler. Convinced of the purity of his inten- 
tions, but immoderately mistrustful of his own sagacity, he 
often became entangled in doubts which prevented him from 
adopting any course of action. The source of this weakness 
sprung partly from the rude style in which his uncle Joseph 
had undertaken to initiate him into public business. Failing 
to discover in him his own peculiar energy of mind, he made 
the young prince so sensible of his full displeasure on that 
account, that the latter became discouraged and lost all self- 
confidence. The unfortunate vicissitudes which marked the 
latter half of the reign of the Emperor Francis were not cal- 
culated to remedy the evil. But they served, at the same time, 
to awaken in his mind a feeling of mistrust in the judgment 
or uprightness of the councillors by whom he was surrounded, 
and whose advice, when acted upon, was so often followed 
by no favourable result. Hence, in addition to a doubt in 
the correctness of his own judgment, there now ensued a 
want of confidence in those who were called to aid him in 
the formation of his opinions. In order to avoid being 
misled by these, he conceived it his duty to make himself 
personally acquainted with the details of business, and, in 
cases of doubt, to consult with different individuals unknown 
to each other, and who were oftentimes even complete 
strangers to the service of the state : the conflict of opinions 
which ensued, only served to render his own judgment more 
uncertain, and prevented him from coming to any decision, and 



j 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 13 

the utter paralysis of public business was generally the result. 
Had the emperor relied more upon his own practical sense 
and experience, or reposed full confidence in any one of his 
councillors, the delay in the despatch of business which occa- 
sioned so many well-grounded complaints, would not have 
occurred. It is an opinion very generally entertained, par- 
ticularly in foreign countries, that Prince Metternich exer- 
cised an unbounded influence over the emperor. This 
opinion is wholly erroneous, for in the home departments of 
government the prince was seldom heard, but was inten- 
tionally kept at a distance ; here the emperor himself toiled , 
like a chief clerk, and seemed wonderfully pleased at paying 
himself the very humble compliment " of being likely to 
become a valuable privy councillor." With advancing age 
Ins doubts and scruples of conscience increased, business was 
more and more procrastinated, and so it happened that the 
Austrian government remained far behind the demands of 
the age even in those improvements which could not by 
possibility impair the principle of absolutism. The emperor 
and his minister have been accused, unjustly, of remaining 
stationary, in accordance with certain maxims ; but the 
fact is, they only remained stationary because they were 
unable to determine with which foot they should begin 
to march forward. But the consequence of thus remaining 
stationary, from whatever cause it may have proceeded, was 
melancholy in the extreme, for it undermined the confidence 
of the people in the intentions or the capacity of the 
government, and thereby weakened their moral energy and 
power to resist the revolutionary party, who carried on their 
machinations in secret. That this party did not then enter 
the lists against the government, as it did in the year 1848, 
must be ascribed alone to the circumstance that domestic 
and foreign events offered them no prospect of victory. 



14 GENESIS OF THE 

These observations on the Austrian administration in 
general require only the assistance of a few supplementary 
remarks with respect to that portion of the monarchy where, 
from time immemorial, constitutions were established, 
namely, Hungary and Transylvania. In both these countries 
the Estates enjoyed a share in the legislative power, and in 
many cases a share also in the general government. Thus, 
the fundamental law required the periodical convocation of 
the Diet, in Hungary every three years, in Transylvania 
every year. But the convocation of these Diets was inter- 
mitted for a long period of years, and for this reason every 
species of improvement was also intermitted, which required 
to be called into life by a formal decree of the legislature, 
and did not depend upon the mere authority of a royal 
rescript. When the convocation of the Hungarian Diet 
at length once more took place, in the year 1825, in conse- 
quence of the loud complaints of the people, the king occu- 
pied a most painful position with regard to it ; for he 
was obliged to make an acknowledgment detrimental to 
the royal authority, and to confess, "That he had erred." 
Concessions were afterwards silently made for the purpose 
of conciliating men's minds, which, however, entailed 
far more important consequences than were foreseen, 
and led the way to the undermining of the complicated 
constitution of Hungary, in which it was an inherent 
peculiarity, that a custom acquired the force of law even 
against the king, when he allowed it to pass without oppo- 
sition. Thus it happened, that already in the Diet of 
the year 1825, and more particularly in subsequent years, 
for want of active opposition on the part of the king, the 
very groundwork of the Hungarian constitution became en- 
tirely altered, either by usurpations on the side of the 
Estates, or by errors on the side of the viceroy, although the 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 15 

government neither intended nor suspected such a result. 
The following examples may serve as illustrations : — The 
counting of individual votes in the assembly of the Estates, 
and the consequent power of the majority, formed no part of 
the Hungarian constitution, the spirit of which was rather to 
be found in the maxim, u vota non numerantur, sed ponde- 
rantur f and hence it was intended, not that the " vota 
majora," but the " vota saniora," should have preponderance, 
by which means the influence of the high nobility was se- 
cured ; because it was the duty of the president, not only in 
the county assemblies, but also in the assemblies of the 
Estates, to declare the result according to the votes of the 
most influential and intelligent members. Upon the occur- 
rence of accidental circumstances, in particular cases, ex- 
ceptions were made to the above-mentioned maxim, and 
individual votes were counted, by which means a custom was 
introduced, which in the year 1830 was silently adopted by 
the Diet, and was particularly acceptable to the movement 
party, inasmuch as it afforded them an opportunity of pur- 
chasing a majority in the county assemblies, by introducing 
the corrupt lower order of nobles, who, though qualified to 
vote, had never previously appeared in those assemblies, and 
of afterwards substituting in the Diet the illegal majority 
of individual votes for the constitutional preponderance 
of the high nobility. The well-known excesses of the 
so-called Cortes in Hungary, which often occasioned blood- 
shed, sprung from this mistake. The restriction of the 
right of the towns to vote in the Diet, was the result of a 
president of the Table of Estates in the year 1830, when the 
system of counting individual votes was first introduced, 
reckoning at the scrutiny the votes of all the members for 
the towns, as constituting a majority of one collective vote. 
Similar oversights occurred in numerous other instances, 



1C GENESIS OF THE 

which, being unnoticed by the crown, were adopted as 
customs, and thus tore one stone after another from the 
foundation of the constitution, which, though antiquated, 
was constructed after an intelligent design, until eventually 
the edifice had lost its solidity. 

The course of affairs in Transylvania, where the constitu- 
tion had conceded to the sovereign the appointment to the 
highest offices in the administration only upon the recom- 
mendation of the Estates, was similar to that which has been 
already described in Hungary; and therefore, during a long 
period, the greater part of the Government officials were 
considered by the Diet to be acting in the illegal dis- 
charge of their functions, inasmuch as their appointment by 
the crown was defective, by reason of the suspension of the 
Diet. 

It was a fortunate circumstance for the government of the 
Emperor Francis, that the movement of the popular mind 
in the south-eastern parts of his empire was directed to 
an entirely different object from those pursued in the west, 
and that the so-termed Holy Alliance, whose founder was the 
Emperor Alexander, as well as the resolute support of the 
King of the French, offered no encouragement to the move- 
ment party to carry out their plans. The fermentation in 
Hungary and Transylvania was, in truth, not occasioned by 
any chimera of the sovereignty of the people, but by the 
desire of the privileged classes to assert and to extend 
their privileges in opposition to the throne, combined with 
the endeavour to exalt the Magyar people to become 
the predominant power in Hungary and its crown lands. 
In those regions the theory of the sovereignty of the 
people had never been heard of. In the west, where, 
as we have already observed, such a doctrine had been 
circulated after the war of liberation, the opinion pre- 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 17 

vailed (whether correctly or not is tin important) that the 
Holy Alliance concealed under its title an alliance of sove- 
reigns against their subjects ; the demagogues had expressed 
this opinion at the time of its institution, and the sentiment 
served at least to discourage them, notwithstanding the 
bitter hate with which they regarded the alliance itself, 
from commencing a war against half a million of bayonets, 
which the princes of that alliance had at their command, 
more particularly as the King of the French, who had been 
established by the will of the sovereign French people (or at 
least of the Parisian mob), in the year 1830, did not exhibit 
the smallest inclination to engage in a contest in support of 
such a theory. The Emperor Francis closed his earthly 
pilgrimage in peace, and as his conscience must have re- 
minded him that he had nobly consulted the welfare of his 
people, and, like a loving father, ceaselessly laboured for the 
same to the best of his ability, so he might be content to die 
in the belief that he would ever continue to be regarded as 
the object of their veneration and love, and bequeath these 
sentiments as an inheritance to his son and successor, 
together with all his widely-extended power. 



THE EMPEROR FERDINAND. 

The disappearance of a monarch, who with a strong hand 
had personally held the reins of government during almost 
half a century, who had witnessed, first the curtailment, and 
then the geographical and political enlargement of his king- 
dom, who had gained marvellous experience, and had earned 
for himself personally the respect of all Europe, must have 
rendered the position of his successor one of extreme ar- 
dour and difficulty. The Emperor Ferdinand had inherited 

C 



18 GENESIS OF THE 

from his father a veneration for rectitude, and a zeal for 
all that is good, no less than an anxiety for the welfare 
of' his subjects. TBut nature had not endowed him with 
equal capacity to undergo bodily and mental exertions. 
The impossibility, therefore, of his carrying on the affairs of 
government in the same manner as his father had done, was 
at once apparent. To the latter, business had become an 
habitual occupation, with which he could not dispense. The 
first care, therefore, of the new government should have 
been to remove from the superintendence of the monarch 
that mass of business in detail, in the management of which 
the deceased emperor had taken so much delight, and to 
entrust it to the care of responsible ministers. The unas- 
suming character of Ferdinand, incapable as he was of mis- 
trust, could not possibly offer any obstacle to a change so 
folly in accordance with the spirit of the age. It should 
have been commenced, however, immediately after his ac- 
cession to the throne, since if once delayed, it was easy to 
foresee that a love for what was already established would 
retard the desired improvement, by the argument so con- 
stantly employed in life, that there is no good reason why 
that which happened yesterday and happens to-day should 
not happen again to-morrow : in which observation we 
forget that between to-day and to-morrow, the night inter- 
venes, in the shadow of whose darkness much may be pre- 
pared to frustrate the usual order of events. A feeling of 
regard for the memory of the Emperor Francis, honourable 
in the extreme, but inconsistent with political duties, led, 
immediately after his decease, to the resolution, that not 
only the system of government, but the very machinery 
of the state, as he had used it, should be preserved un- 
changed, — an unfortunate decision, since the hand failed 
that was so skilled in putting the machine in motion, and 



DEVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 19 

the spirit, moreover, failed, which in case of necessity was 
to supply the defects in the worn-out machinery. The con- 
struction of this complicated machine, particularly in its 
internal parts, is so little understood beyond the limits of 
Austria, that a sketch of it, in this place, cannot be con- 
sidered inappropriate. 



THE AUSTRIAN GOVERNMENT MACHINERY. 

Until the month of March, 1848, there was no ministry in 
the Austrian empire, but only court offices, and they were 
of this description. For the chief government of the home 
department there were three aulic chancellorships (viz. an 
united aulic chancellorship for all parts of the empire not 
belonging to Hungary or Transylvania, and a separate chan- 
cellorship for each of those last-mentioned provinces). For 
the departments of finance, rents, domains, mines, trade, in- 
dustry and the post-office, there was one general aulic- 
chamber. For the administration of the law in those dis- 
tricts which formed no part of Hungary or Transylvania, 
there was a chief-justiceship. For the united military depart- 
ment, there was the celebrated aulic council of war. For the 
business of the police and censorship, there was an aulic-de- 
partment bearing those titles. For the control of the public 
accounts, there was a general directory of accounts ; and finally, 
for conducting the business of the imperial household and 
of foreign affairs, there was a private house-court-and-state- 
chancellorship. In the united aulic chancellorship, there 
was a separate department for the management of public 
education, under the title of the aulic commission of studies ; 
and, annexed to the chief-justiceship, there was an aulic com- 
mission of legislation to frame all laws relating to the adminis- 

C 2 



20 GENESIS OF THE 

tration of justice. These court offices, with the exception of 
the police and censorship, and the house-court-and-st ate -chan- 
cellorship, had a collegiate administration; that is to say, 
all their measures were determined at boards by a relative 
majority of votes ; each referendary and voter possessed an 
individual vote, as well as the president, whose duty it was 
not to allow any decisions to come into practical operation, 
if he apprehended any injury might arise therefrom to the 
service, without first submitting them to the emperor for 
decision. These court offices were in former times con- 
sidered as secretaryships of the monarch, they acted in his 
name, and received the title and the address of "Your 
Majesty." This custom subsisted up to the days of March, 
with respect to the chief department of justice, and the 
two aulic-chancellorships of Hungary and Transylvania, 
which bodies controlled the administration of justice in 
those countries. 

Originally the heads of the court offices had the same 
jurisdiction as state secretaries, or ministers, in the real 
meaning of the word, and sometimes enjoyed that title and 
rank on account of their own personal qualifications. The 
head of the house-court-and-state-chancellorship always en- 
joyed this distinction, oftentimes even in connection with 
the still more exalted dignity of state chancellor, as was the 
case first with the celebrated state chancellor Prince Kaunitz, 
and subsequently with Prince Metternich. They were sum- 
moned to councils by the monarch, and up to the last years 
of the reign of the Empress Maria Theresa there was no 
corporation in existence to whom the examination and 
review of the projects emanating from the court offices 
was committed ; but the more important affairs of state 
were considered, and afterwards decided in councils formed 
of the chiefs of the court offices under the presidency of the 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 21 

monarch, held in the presence of a few confidential persons, 
who had attained the rank of minister of state, or minister 
of conference, which was the highest office in the empire after 
that of state-chancellor, although such person might have 
ceased to hold a portfolio. The rapid development of the 
moral and industrial resources of Austria, and the reforms in 
the administration of the home department, instituted by the 
empress, with the assistance of her son Joseph, tended to 
increase the amount of public business, and to render it more 
complicated, and thence arose the necessity for increasing the 
number of confidential persons in the imperial councils, 
which was effected by employing persons from each separate 
department, who were wholly unfitted, in respect of their 
other qualifications, to fill the highest offices in the state. 
The empress therefore created the council of state, and sum- 
moned to the same a small but carefully selected number of 
nobles from the different branches of the administration, 
who might, in conjunction with the ministers of state and 
the ministers of conference, form her political court of con- 
science. The duty which she imposed on the members of 
this new council was very characteristic. They were bound 
to speak according to their individual convictions, with the 
additional understanding that they should receive, during the 
period of their lives, the large yearly salary of 8,000 florins, 
even in case of their secession from the council, and this 
arrangement was made for the express purpose of ensuring 
their protection, lest apprehension from the consequences of 
the imperial anger, occasioned by an unrestrained expression 
of their sentiments, might cause them to swerve from the 
conscientious discharge of their duty. <* 

As long as the original character of these court offices 
and of the court council was preserved, the want of an 
united ministry could never be felt in Austria. But in the 



22 GENESIS OF THE \ 

course of time these bodies lost their peculiar character. 
During the first part of the reign of the Emperor Francis, 
he presided in person at the conferences, and to assist him 
in the discharge of his duty, he had a cabinet minister 
at his side, who was in constant connection, not only 
officially, but personally, with the president of the court 
offices, the state-councillors, and the ministers of state and 
conference, and he daily brought before the notice of the 
emperor the subjects to be considered. In the year 1805 this 
cabinet minister (who at that period was the Count Colloredo) 
was dismissed from his post at the desire of Napoleon, and 
the office has never since been filled up : the emperor per- 
sonally undertook the arduous task of holding together all the 
threads of the general administration, and availed himself of 
the occasional assistance, first of one and then of another of 
his ministers of state or conference, but never otherwise than 
in a temporary and partial manner. Oral communications 
between the emperor and the heads of the state departments 
became now more and more rare ; they were obliged to 
submit everything to the emperors notice in writing ; they 
were forbidden to appear before him in discharge of their 
official business, without a summons, or without the imperial 
permission previously obtained, and many months often 
elapsed without their being summoned together. After 
this fashion, those who filled the court offices gradually 
sunk from their rank of participators in the government, to 
the condition of mere officials of the administration ; each 
busied himself in his own particular department, without 
regard to the duties of the others, and a substantial co-opera- 
tion was wanting for the general benefit of the state. The 
council of state, which should have formed the focus for con- 
centrating the rays of government, did not fulfil such an inten- 
tion; for the great mass of business in detail, which had been 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 23 

referred to this body for its advice, had produced an impor- 
tant increase in the number of its members, not by the addi- 
tion of bond fide privy councillors, but by the introduction 
of official referendaries of lower rank and inferior capacity, 
and dividing them into sections adapted to the various 
departments of business. The personal credit of the mem- 
bers of the state council was materially diminished, their 
proceedings were tedious and procrastinated, each section 
deemed itself the representative of that particular branch of 
business committed to its superintendence, and considered 
that the whole was represented only by the Emperor 
Francis. It did not happen, however, that all the business 
which came before the throne was referred for decision to 
the state council, to whose province it belonged. The em- 
peror caused a large proportion of it to be transacted with- 
out the intervention of that council, in " cabinet fashion," 
as it was termed, by a single member of the body, whom he 
selected, or by one of the ministers of state or conference, 
occasionally even by persons who belonged to neither cate- 
gory, and were even strangers to the service of the state : in 
which case it was forbidden to those who were so honoured 
with the imperial confidence to speak of the transaction. It 
often became the difficult task of the monarch alone to 
consider the effect which certain measures proposed by 
one department might exercise on another branch of the 
administration. The state council was not capable of taking 
a general view of the affairs of government, and could not, 
therefore, supply the deficiency which existed in the very 
heart of the executive, for want of a ministerial council. In 
consequence of this manner of conducting the public busi- 
ness, everything depended upon the personal qualifications 
of the emperor. But as personal qualifications are not here- 
ditary, like the throne, it was a matter of the most urgent 



24 



GENESIS OF THE 



necessity, on the accession of the new emperor, to effect a 
change, adapted to the wants of the time, in the whole 
system of the court offices and the council of state. The 
system of transacting business at boards by the court 
offices, which had no cognizance of matters of law, might, 
at the time of its institution, when the quantity of 
business and the number of members were not very 
large, have been liable to no strong objection ; but of late 
they had to contend with the two-fold disadvantage of im- 
peding the discharge of pressing business and acting in con- 
cert with a class of officials who were exempt from personal 
responsibility, since the quantity of business to be transacted, 
often, too, of the most complicated nature, allowed neither a 
thorough discussion nor a complete decision, the discussion 
being in most cases a mere matter of form, which served 
merely to screen the official from all subsequent responsi- 
bility. The unfitness of this collective system of transacting 
matters of business which, from their nature, required des- 
patch, secrecy, and special knowledge, was already evident ; 
and for this reason the system of presidential management was 
introduced as a palliative. According to this system, the pre- 
sident withdrew a portion of the business from the manage- 
ment of the board, in order to despatch the same by virtue 
of his own mere authority, with the aid of a councillor's or 
secretary's pen. In many of the court offices, particularly 
in the general court-chamber, the business was exces- 
sively procrastinated. But this system had the evil result 
of directing the attention of the president too much to 
such affairs as were reserved for himself, and to the business 
of the boards, and diminished the superintendence he was 
bound to maintain over the referendaries and voters, as in 
such superintendence lay the only guarantee against inat- 
tention, prejudice, or obstinacy on their part. 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 25 

The jurisdiction of these court offices was strictly defined 
by the emperor ; whatever duties lay beyond or above such 
jurisdiction was reserved for the imperial determination. 
But the boundary was found sometimes to lie more in matter 
of form than of substance. Strictly speaking, whatever 
matters were not in accordance with established precedent 
ought to be referred to the throne, but whatever lay within 
Ihe confines of precedent might be immediately decided 
>Iy the court office to the jurisdiction of which it belonged. 
The most extraordinary contradictions resulted from this 
maxim. A conscript, for instance, summoned for military 
service, if his claims of exemption were not admitted by 
the civil and military officials, could, strictly speaking, only 
be relieved from service by an imperial decree, whilst the 
duty of determining the number of recruits to be annually 
kept on foot, although this varied every year, depended 
altogether on the decision of the war department. The 
thousand workmen who, during a great many years, had 
found fixed employment in the public works, but who had 
not gone through the formality of taking^an oath, when 
they became disabled, could not be entitled to the smallest 
pension without the previous consent of the emperor himself, 
because, according to established precedent, the oath of alle- 
giance alone gave a title to the protection of the state. The 
conversion of the smallest portions of forest into arable land 
required the special permission of the throne, because the^forest 
laws enacted, in order to prevent a scarcity of wood, that the 
extent of the forests should not be diminished. A landlord 
wishing to purchase a few square yards of ground from his 
tenant for building, or the formation of a garden, was obliged 
first to obtain the permission of the emperor himself, because 
the tenant laws forbade the increase of domains by any addi- 
tion of peasant lands. 



26 GENESIS OF THE 

Besides the impediments thus offered to the efficiency of 
the court offices by the effect of a particular system, they 
were not unfrequently interfered with by the emperor him- 
self, even in matters which came particularly within their 
attribution. The absolute rulers of Austria had, for instance, 
given their subjects so uncontrolled a right of petition- 
ing, that every individual might apply immediately to the 
emperor, and was allowed not only to hand in his petitions 
personally, at the weekly audiences, but even to send them by 
post, as the post-office authorities had received directions to 
forward all communications for the emperor to the imperial 
cabinet. The applications were examined on their arrival, and 
if their contents seemed to require no particular attention, 
they were transmitted forthwith to the court offices, to be 
dealt with by those departments. But if circumstances were 
therein stated which appeared either to entitle the petitioner 
to a favour, or raised a doubt as to the impartiality of the 
authorities, the emperor marked (signed) the petition, — that 
is, he wrote with his own hand in a corner thereof the name 
of the president of the particular court office to whose cog- 
nizance the matter belonged ; every such signature had the 
effect of preventing the petition from being dealt with by 
the office before the whole transaction had been explained 
to the emperor, and before the intended decision of the court 
office had been approved of by him. These signatures (as 
they were technically termed), which so constantly occurred, 
produced as a necessary result, not only the delay of business, 
but impaired the efficiency of the administration. The 
superintendence exercised over the court offices, for the 
purpose chiefly of preventing them from overstepping their 
jurisdiction, was ensured by a regulation, which rendered it 
necessary to submit to the emperor a programme of the 
business which was to be transacted at every sitting. The 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 27 

examination and supervision of this programme devolved 
upon the council of state, which exercised a strict control. 

Although by these means valuable precautions were taken 
against the abuse of official authority, the working of the court 
offices was, however, a good deal trammelled, and a species of 
intimidation was exercised, not only over them, but over 
their sub-functionaries. The result was, that every official, 
in order to escape responsibility in doubtful cases, instead of 
acting, had recourse to consultations, and thus the subaltern 
leaned upon his superior, and the superior upon the emperor, 
upon whom consequently, in the opinion of the people, rested 
the responsibility of all obnoxious measures. 

The court offices had no connection with the state 
council, or with the voters of the cabinet. They submitted 
their proposals to the emperor. Thus their original cha- 
racter of secretaries of state was maintained in form, since 
the state council was not interposed between them and 
the emperor, but stood behind the latter, to receive their 
proposals from him when they had been considered by the 
state council, and to return them to him when they had 
undergone revision. But this strict adherence to form 
carried with it a material injury to the substance. The 
court offices only learned the emperor's decision upon their 
measures through the medium of cabinet letters (which 
were termed hand-billets), and even then only received the 
emperor's determination, briefly announced, without any 
reasons being given for the same ; and this course was pur- 
sued in conformity with the maxim, that it was not deemed 
compatible with absolute power to render any account res- 
pecting the grounds of an imperial decree. In numerous 
cases, therefore, when their proposals were not adopted, or 
were subjected to material modifications, they were unable 
to learn the motive of the rejection or the alteration, they 



28 GENESIS OF THE 

could never therefore comprehend the spirit of their master s 
orders, but were circumscribed in cariying them into execution 
by the limits which seemed to be contained within the strict 
letter of the decree. Misunderstandings and indifference fol- 
lowed the execution of such decrees, and displays of vexation 
and malicious joy were not wanting at the unsuccessful result 
of a groundless decision against their opinion, so that not 
unfrequently the secretaries of the emperor came into moral 
conflict with their master. This serious evil might have 
been remedied by the simple arrangement of calling in the 
chiefs of the court offices to consider the amendments of 
the state or cabinet council, whenever it was proposed to 
reject, or materially to alter, the propositions emanating 
from the court offices ; but in opposition to this plan, a 
love for old usages arrayed itself, together with the satisfac- 
tion which the council of state and the cabinet voters found 
in claiming part in the infallibility of their client. 

In the chief towns of the provinces, the country magis- 
trates were subject to the court offices at Vienna, and amongst 
these, always excepting the management of the police, the 
collective system of transacting business was established, and 
was followed by the same evil results. The police establish- 
ments occupied a two-fold position ; they were, for example, 
subject to the provincial authorities, and with respect to 
matters that concerned the inferior police, subject even to 
the inferior authorities ; but at the same time they received 
their orders immediately from the court office of police, and 
made reports immediately to it, a course, as is generally 
known, which gives rise to perpetual suspicions and discon- 
tent on the part of both the provincial and the inferior 
authorities. 

The provincial authorities for the management of the 
interior (political) as well as the finance administration, 



KEVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 29 

had in the chief city of every* circle (in the Lonibardo- 
Yenetian kingdom, in every province), the government 
officers at their disposal. By those to whom the adminis- 
tration of the finance was entrusted, the system of transacting 
business by boards was practised ; by those who conducted 
the interior (political) administration (called circle-offices, 
and in the Lombardo -Venetian kingdom, delegations), the 
official authority and responsibility was transferred per- 
sonally to the president (called the captain of a circle or 
delegate). 

The provincial authorities for the administration of justice 
exercised control over the judges of the first instance, who 
in some places consisted of boards of magistrates appointed 
by the prince or the towns, in others, were single judges 
appointed by the prince or the lord. 

In Hungary and Transylvania this difference existed, 
that the provincial authorities for the interior administration 
and for the affairs of justice, had no government officers 
under their control in the separate departments (the counties), 
but only municipal officers ; who, with the exception of the 
supreme counts, nominated by the prince, and irremovable 
from office, or, in their absence, the removable administrators 
of counties, elected by the counties themselves, were either 
badly or not at all paid, and were irremovable for the 
period of their office, and on this account, particularly of 
late, only obeyed such orders as they deemed consistent 
with their municipal authority. According to the esta- 
blished proceedings of the boards, the president appointed by 
the prince (eithei the supreme counts or the administrators) 
had no power to enforce obedience to superior orders. 

In the crown lands which did not form part of Hungary, 
sometimes civic magistrates, sometimes government district 
commissioners, sometimes private manorial officers, were the 



30 GENESIS OF THE 

chief authorities of the interior (political) administration 
under the circle-offices ; whilst under the delegations in the 
Lombardo -Venetian kingdom, there were always govern- 
ment district commissioners, to which essential difference we 
must ascribe the more orderly course of proceedings so re- 
markable in that kingdom. 

In those provinces of the empire where the estates, as 
they were called, existed, these latter assumed some times co- 
ordinate, at other times subordinate authority, with respect to 
the imperial authorities, which conduct was the unavoidable 
source of differences between them. These estates had 
not the character of representatives of the people, in the 
sense which, in our days, is attributed to the expression ; 
they were privileged corporations, who only represented 
their own rights, which had been conceded to them by 
monarchs at various times ; rights which neither gave them 
a direct share in the legislation, nor required their consent 
to the imposition of taxes in general, but were limited to 
the announcement of the direct taxes to be paid by the 
province annually, before their imposition, and to certain 
branches of the administrative business apportioned to them, 
viz. the imposition, assessment, and levying of the direct 
taxes j further, to the distribution of funds placed at their 
disposal by the princes, sometimes for settled purposes, some- 
times for objects subsequently to be declared, and to the 
management of the institutions supported by such funds, as 
well as to the maintaining and discharging the credits which 
had been opened by the state in former times. They repre- 
sented the general interests of the people only so far as these 
coincided with their own particular advantage. For this 
reason, and more particularly because they were a privileged 
corporation, they enjoyed no remarkable sympathy at the 
hauds of the people. The Emperor Joseph II. had considered 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 31 

them an impediment to his plans of reform, and discontinued 
their sittings, a proceeding which increased his popularity in 
the eyes of all those who did not belong to the privileged body, 
and, in conjunction with the suppression of the power of the 
church, earned for him great respect and veneration from 
the philosophers of that age and their dependants, friends of 
enlightenment, as they were termed, and who were very 
numerous in the higher and middle classes of society. The 
Emperor Leopold II. re-established the estates. The Em- 
peror Francis allowed them to continue, not destroying 
their form, but allowing them the smallest possible degree of 
influence in the administration, and scarcely any in matters 
of legislation. 

In the discharge of business, it was a maxim with all the 
officials to permit nothing to be decided upon moral convic- 
tion, but in administrative as well as in judicial matters, to 
ground the decision of all disputed points upon formal 
proofs, and, on the other hand, in administrative measures, 
previously to take the opinions of all the officials concerned, 
beginning with the lowest. The course of appeal against 
decisions which did not relate to the functions of the tri- 
bunal (in which case two similar decisions precluded all 
further appeal) lay through all the courts ; thus in an ad- 
ministrative question, an appeal lay, against a decision of 
the authorities of a particular place, to the office of the 
circle, from thence to the office of the province, and from 
thence to the office of the court ; and even against the last- 
mentioned decision one might appeal to the emperor, and if 
he signed the petition of complaint, it went once more through 
the whole series of officials, setting aside all the previous pro- 
ceedings, sometimes occasioning new steps to be commenced, 
which were again brought before the throne, and at length 
sent with the imperial decree to pursue the same course 



32 GENESIS OF THE 

again. However honourable such a system might be for the 
monarch's heart, whose object was to curb the arbitrary con- 
duct of his officials, and which certainly, in a moral point of 
view, restrained his own absolute power, since he regularly 
decided no cause which he had not himself heard, it never- 
theless produced an immense increase and delay of business 
as the inevitable result. 

The task of setting bounds to the functions of the pro- 
vincial officials, and of preventing them from exceeding their 
proper limits, was provided for by measures similar to those 
already mentioned, which controlled the officers of the court. 
The jealousy which these superintendents felt against then- 
subordinates increased in indirect proportion to their rank ; 
so that those who stood in immediate connection with the 
people had the smallest field to exercise their activity. A 
system of consulting in place of acting was thus gradually 
established, since a consultation with a superior was sure 
to protect an inferior official from responsibility, because, 
generally speaking, the neglect of timely activity was 
considered far less culpable than any accidental excess of 
authority. The result of all this necessarily was a weari- 
some, timid, and slow course of business. And since, 
moreover, the supervision of the jurisdiction of the tri- 
bunals rather raised the question whether a given matter of 
business should be transacted at all, than how it should be 
despatched, the art of protracting litigation attained a high 
degree of refinement, by means of new proceedings, and 
agreements with assistant officials, and consultations with 
those who filled a higher department. Like criminals con- 
demned to the tread-mill in England, who are obliged to 
keep on treading, even though the wheel produces no bene- 
ficial result, so did these officials often pursue their labours 
without any advantage accruing from their exertions. It is 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 33 

easy to imagine how they became weary and dispirited by 
such unproductive efforts. Their discipline was no longer 
moral, but became a mere matter of form ; many of the offi- 
cial persons, for example, considered it their duty, not so 
much to transact their business according to the sphit of the 
government, as to work after a certain prescribed form ; and 
even in this respect, it often happened that just enough was 
done to screen the officials from the displeasure of their 
superiors. The superiors themselves, indeed, had much diffi- 
culty in controlling the mode of transacting business, since 
every individual who was in the actual service of the state, 
from having taken the necessary oath, became, from that 
circumstance, almost immoveable from office ; because no 
official who had once been sworn into the lowest office could 
be dismissed without the consent of two councillors of justice, 
except under the sentence of a criminal court ; and against 
an actual sentence of dismissal there was an appeal to all 
the higher courts, and even to the throne ; and, indeed, the 
councillors of justice, whose duty it was to pronounce the 
first decision, but still more the superior authorities, consi- 
dered it their chief duty to protect the individual officers, 
particularly if their superiors had the character of being 
unusually strict and rigorous. Under such circumstances, it 
redounded much to the honour of the Austrian officials, that 
with the exception of their character for indecision already 
alluded to, and their indifference in carrying out the views of 
the government, they seldom gave occasion for well-grounded 
complaints of inattention, prejudice, or over-familiarity ; the 
exceptional cases, where the officials were negligent in atten- 
tion to their duty, dishonest in their conduct, or personally 
condemned by public opinion, were not more frequent in 
Austria than in other countries. The cause of any well- 
founded discontent, which might be heard at the working of 

D 



34 GENESIS OF THE 

the state-machine, was not to be found in the unfitness of its 
particular parts, so much as in its general construction, 
which impeded its motion by the excess of friction, or more 
especially in the insufficiency of its moving power. This power 
became languid, and it worked more efficiently in particular 
parts, than upon the entire mass of the mechanism ; or in 
other words, the state was administered, but not governed. The 
ordinary business which required to be transacted was done, 
if not with extraordinary despatch, at least correctly and 
justly ; but that business which from its very nature should 
have commenced rather with the superior than with the in- 
ferior authorities, viz. the quiet reform of antiquated prac- 
tices, in conformity with the exigencies of the time, those 
well-planned regular improvements in the institutions of the 
country, upon a scheme, which should consider and include 
the empire at large — such changes were neglected, except 
perhaps in some instances, where the operations of the 
government were anticipated by classes of subjects who were 
not appointed for that purpose ; and the government itself, 
that should have taken the initiative in such measures, was 
obliged to follow in the wake. 

After this fashion was the Austrian state machine con- 
structed, when the Emperor Ferdinand ascended the throne, 
and so it remained in fact till the month of March, 1848. 
One defect, however, had, soon after his accession, become 
too evident to escape his attention. This was the joint 
transaction of business by the court offices and the privy 
council which surrounded the emperor, whose duty it was to 
consider and examine the propositions of the former. To 
remedy this evil without much disturbance to the existing 
order of things was a perplexing task. The solution of the 
difficulty was attempted, by introducing a new form in the 
central administration of affairs, and by constructing a new 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 35 

board, the Conference of State, which was to be a deliberative 
body in the strictest sense, and was formed partly of per- 
manent and partly of temporary members. According to 
the "Austrian State and Court Hand-Book" for the year 
1848, which announces it at the head of the second division, 
entitled a The State," the two Arch-Dukes, the Chancellor 
of State, and the senior Minister of State and Conference in 
point of rank, were to form the permanent members. 

The temporary ministers are mentioned in the same place. 
They are the remaining min isters of state and conference, 
according to the importance of their duties, the chiefs of 
sections who were councillors of state, the councillors of state 
and conference, and the presidents of the court offices. 

This plan was not sufficient to remedy the great evil of 
the state-machine, which consisted in the want of solidity 
in that organ which, fixed in the centre, conducted the 
business of all branches of the administration, viz. the 
ministry, or the court offices, as they were termed in 
Austria ; for the chiefs of this organ were not permanent, 
but temporary members, being only in particular and ex- 
ceptional cases, supplementary members of the ttate confer- 
ence, and consequently they preserved their former isolated 
character. The objection to this plan was, that it was ani- 
mated by no active spirit, since the two men of business, whose 
task it should have been to infuse this activity into it, could 
not spare the necessary time from their other occupations. 
The chancellor of state was, for example, fully occupied in 
transacting the business belonging to the ministry of foreign 
affairs, which was committed to his immediate superintend- 
ence ; and it required all the quickness of thought and rapid 
facility of expression, all the remarkable activity and devotion 
to the service of the state which even the enemies of Prince 
Metternich must admit that he possessed, to preserve him 

D 2 



36 GENESIS OF THE 

from giving way under the mass of business that pressed 
upon him at his advanced age ; the other, Count Kolowrath, 
held no portfolio, but, as is generally known in Vienna, he 
was constantly employed in the official duty of superintending 
the most important and confidential affairs of state, of examin- 
ing all matters connected with the court and the expenditure 
of the imperial family, and of reviewing and examining the 
work of the councillors of state and the cabinet officials 
before they came before the Archduke Louis, to be sub- 
mitted to the emperor ; and he had in addition to perform 
the duty, if not to enjoy. the title, of the cabinet minister who 
had been always at the side of the Emperor Francis till the 
year 1805. This duty was so extensive, that to assist in 
its discharge, two high state officials — councillors of court — 
with several official clerks, were assigned to him ; and this 
business required the more attention, from the fact that any 
observations he might make on the various matters which 
he undertook to examine, were never communicated to 
others, and therefore he had to pronounce the final opinion, 
which became the more important in consequence of the 
confidence which the emperor reposed in him. Time could 
not be found for regular oral consultations with the mem- 
bers of the state conference on business relating to the 
empire in general ; the reference of particular subjects to 
that board for consideration did not occur regularly, but by 
fits, and accidentally, and the decision on such occasional 
matters was usually communicated only in writing, and 
accordingly without affording any opportunity for comparing 
ideas and correcting impressions. For these reasons, this 
institution, which was intended to supply the want of a 
ministerial council, failed in its purpose, and produced no 
other result than to add a third system to the two original 
plans (to wit, the state council and the » cabinet), through 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 37 

which business to be transacted by the emperor was brought 
before his notice, and thus in place of promoting a union, 
occasioned a greater division. The temporary members of 
the conference of state could exercise no beneficial influence 
upon that body. Their position resembled a cipher in 
arithmetic, which only has value when a figure stands 
before it. 

A gross injustice would be committed against the statesmen 
of Austria by supposing that they had not long recognized 
the defects of the state machine. All those who have ever 
been in confidential communication with them, must acknow- 
ledge that the evils had not escaped their attention. Above 
all, Prince Metternich made no secret of his conviction that 
the chief fault of the government lay in its not governing, 
and that this defect arose from confounding the executive 
with the legislative departments. But an admission, to 
produce benefit, must embody itself in action. And the 
force of habit, combined with the want of decision and union, 
prevented the intention of acting from being reduced to 
practice. "No one deemed the storm so near, and when at 
length it burst forth, the worn-out machinery was no longer 
capable of governing the vessel of the state, and it became 
the sport of the wind and the waves. 



THE SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT. 

The causes which had prevented a timely reform of the 
state machine, on the accession of the Emperor Ferdinand, 
though they were of such a nature as (except in Hungary 
and Transylvania) to depend on the will of the monarch 
alone, must have stood still more in the way of a change in 
the system of government, besides which the relations of 



38 



GENESIS OF THE 



Austria to foreign powers were to be taken into considera- 
tion. It was for this reason that the system of government 
of the Emperor Francis remained wholly untouched. 

We have already adverted to the chief maxim of this 
system ; it was the unabated maintenance of the sove- 
reign's authority, and a denial of all claim on the part of 
the people to a participation in that authority. This maxim 
was accompanied by two others, which were meant to serve 
as props to it. One was the maintenance of the paternal 
character of the government, and the other the defence and 
^encouragement of Catholicism. 

From these three maxims emanated all the proceedings 
of the government. The contradictions which an attentive 
observer may notice in particular government measures will 
be explained by considering the predominance of one or 
other of these maxims : sometimes it might be accidental, and 
at other times it might arise from the force of circumstances. 
Thus, the police provisions respecting passports, the strict 
censorship exercised over publications, the restrictions on 
public meetings, the direction of the species of instruction to 
be taught in schools of every kind, the suppression of the 
provincial estates,- were consequences of the first maxim. On 
the other hand, in the execution of all ordinances and pro- 
hibitions, the second maxim gave rise to so lax a system, 
that their fall weight was felt by only a few individuals, and 
those were persons whose conduct had made them particularly 
obnoxious or had provoked in too marked a manner the atten- 
tion of the police. The strictness of the censorship, more 
especially, was only exercised against works and journals pub- 
lished in the country, and against the public advertisements 
of booksellers. All foreign literary productions were easily 
obtained in private, so that a man of any literary pretensions 
would have been ashamed in society to acknowledge himself 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 39 

unacquainted with a forbidden book or journal that had 
excited observation : for instance, even in the presence of the 
highest officials, and in the most public places, it was customary 
to speak openly of the worst articles in the journal Die Grenz- 
boten, since no one thought it his business to inquire how the 
speaker became acquainted with such an article.* Directions 
were previously given to the professors, prescribing in what 
manner and on what subjects they were to lecture ; but if they 
taught differently, they incurred no censiu^e provided their 
teaching impugned no dogma of Catholicity. For instance, 
after possession had been taken by Austria of the territory of 
Cracow, a professor at Vienna chose for a subject of public 
disputation for a doctor's degree a question which afforded an 
opportunity of condemning this act of the government in the " 
severest terms. The circumstance caused excitement ; the pro- 
fessor was examined, and he excused himself by proving the 
good intention which had actuated him to choose this subject, 
being desirous to correct the erroneous opinions of those who 
had expressed themselves loudly against the government. 
And though from the style in which he had opposed the 
Candidate for the degree, in the public disputation, it was 

* The following decree which appeared in the Gazette of Vienna 
(Wiener Zeitung) of 14th July, 1850, forms a contrast to the proceed- 
ings before March : — 

" Vienna, 12>th July, 1850. 

u Sentence of imprisonment (profosen-arrest) for fonr weeks was pro- 
nounced against Joseph Schonpflug, for receiving the Presse, a for- 
bidden newspaper," &c. &c. 

From the Imperial Royal Central Military Commission. 

It is probable that before March 1848, the military provost would 
have found it necessary to provide receivers of newspapers with board 
and lodging, if a state of siege, in the absence of war, had been at that 
time known in Austria. That such a resource was unknown, and that 
there were no laws against riots, was a defect in the legislative system, 
which was not recognised before the events of March, when the neces- 
sity of supplying such a defect became evident. It appears that the 
completion of the Austrian laws as to exceptional cases which were 
previously unknown, was also a consequence of those events. 



40 GENESIS OF THE 

manifest that he desired to produce the very contrary effect) 
yet he continued professor. In the month of March, 1848, 
this professor became an active leader in the disturbances 
created by the students. The government, for the purpose 
of acting a paternal part, behaved like a good-humoured 
father, who takes no notice of the inattention of his children, 
provided he at the same time preserves his authority unim- 
paired. The court itself afforded an illustration of tins, 
inasmuch as persons who had signalized themselves as noto- 
rious opposers of its measures, met sometimes with a more 
friendly reception on public occasions than its warmest advo- 
cates. However much such conduct may testify to the good- 
ness of the prince's heart, it must always be open to question, 
since it lessens the influence which he might exert by the 
expression of his dissatisfaction in those cases where the law 
has been set at defiance. How great was the impression which 
the imperial discontent was capable of producing may be 
proved by an example that occurred in the time of the Em- 
press Maria Theresa. A Hungarian archbishop of her ap- 
pointment had not subsequently supported her cause with the 
zeal that was expected from him. On one occasion, there- 
fore, she passed him by, at a levee, as if she had not observed 
him. The chamberlain, under the impression that she had 
accidentally overlooked him, directed her attention to him, but 
received a short answer from the empress in the blunt reply, 
a The proud priest does not care for me." The high spiritual 
functionary found himself so oppressed by the weight of his 
monarch's anger, that he took to his bed, and this example 
served as a warning to others. From the maxim of govern- 
ing paternally emanated the system of governing too much, 
since in place of the observance of that rule which secures 
the real freedom of each individual, — viz., that government 
should only command what is absolutely necessary for the 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 41 

public good, and only prohibit what is absolutely injurious, — 
the Austrian government considered itself bound to extend 
its imperative influence over matters which were likely to be 
more or less useful, as well as to protect the interests of 
individuals. Innumerable orders and prohibitions were the 
consequence of this error ; but as, for the most part, they 
were not enforced in consequence of the predominating pater- 
nal mildness of the government, the consequence was, that 
the government lost respect. The maintenance of the doc- 
trine of absolutism against the continual assaults of the 
spirit of the age could not be attained by a system of 
paternal mildness, but only by an exercise of Napoleon-like 
rigour. The effect of two such opposite maxims entangled 
the government in contradiction with itself, and being thus 
exposed to the ridicule and the attacks of the evil- disposed, 
it gradually lost the confidence of its subjects. The third 
maxim, — viz., the defence and encouragement of Catho- 
licism, — might at least have produced the effect of afford- 
ing a strong support to the temporal power by contri- 
buting the whole weight of the spiritual authority in aid 
of the doctrines of government as opposed to the theory of 
the sovereignty of the people, and in maintaining the prin- 
ciple of pure monarchy, if it had been fully applied to that 
purpose. But this was not the case. The Catholic Church, 
in spite of the example of later times, even in consti- 
tutional governments, was not liberated from that superin- 
tendence which, since the reign of Maria Theresa and 
Joseph II., different laws and regulations had subjected her 
to ; the opposition in some points that existed between the 
Canon and the Austrian law, particularly on questions of 
marriage, and which gave rise to endless disputes with 
Home, was not removed, and on this account the discontent 
of Rome and her dependants was perpetuated. On the 



42 GENESIS OF THE 

other hand, the government adopted, in highest spheres, 
that most injurious of all measures, namely, connivance, 
and favoured by its tacit indulgence a breach of many 
of the laws and regulations in particular cases, by which 
means the under-officials, who considered the maintenance of 
those rules to be their duty, often came into conflict with 
their spiritual superiors. Such conflicts necessarily produced 
an injurious effect on the ultramontane party, on that 
numerous body of indifferent persons who belonged chiefly 
to the middle classes, and upon such as were not Catholics, 
as they evinced an irresolution or an incapability to change 
those things openly which the sovereign, by the state of 
the existing law, admitted to be opposed to the doctrines of 
Catholicism and the rights of the church ; or else they indi- 
cated a fear on his part to administer laws which, whilst they 
were disagreeable to the church, he had not courage to 
repeal.* The favour extended to the monks, especially to 

* The Emperor Francis and some of his advisers had long cherished 
the desire of relieving the Apostolical See of its difficulties, and of re- 
storing the union between church and state by a modification of the 
laws affecting the Catholic Church. The interview of the emperor 
with Pope Pius VII. at Rome, after the restoration of the Pope's terri- 
tory, converted that desire into a determination. The emperor, how- 
ever, during his subsequent reign of twenty years, found himself defi- 
cient in that energy which was required for the execution of his design, 
which met with opposition on the part of many eminent statesmen, as 
well as from public opinion. His delay alarmed him on his death-bed, 
and he demanded from those who were to inherit his power the execu- 
tion of what he had not been able to accomplish himself. The govern- 
ment which followed also hesitated to revoke the laws of the Emperor 
Joseph, referring to the Church, and this will excite no surprise, if we 
only regard the effect which that modification in 1850 produced among 
all classes, although it was an inevitable consequence of the triumph of 
the popular element in 1848. Were not those free citizens, who, 
through the Habeas Corpus Act (the fundamental laws of the 4th of 
March of 1849), had been secured against any external power of the 
chiefs of the Catholic Church, seen to tremble when they read in the 
imperial decree of the 18th of April, 1850, among the rights of the 
Catholic bishops, that of inflicting ecclesiastical pimishments? These 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 43 

those two orders whose influence indeed was a subject of 
unnecessary apprehension to many — the Jesuits and the 

stunning words (which it would have been wise and easy to avoid), by- 
reflecting upon the mind the terrors of the middle ages, such as excom- 
munication, whipping, and other degrading penances, expiated at the 
church doors, created so powerful an excitement, as to induce the Ca- 
tholic bishops to issue pastoral letters in the interest of religion, in 
order to pacify the faithful. The effect of a similar ordinance issued 
before March, at the time when the State was called a police State, 
would have been of a more terrifying and lasting nature. There existed 
at that time a dominant religion in Austria, whose ministers had re- 
course, for the execution of their statutes, to the aid of the police. The 
government of the Emperor Ferdinand and that of his father were 
wanting in courage to enforce the above measure. It was owing to this, 
and by no means to any hostility towards the Catholic Church, that the 
laws of Joseph in ecclesiastical matters underwent no alteration ; their 
severity was softened by a lax enforcement of them. During the sixty 
years of their existence, however, the Catholic religion in Austria was 
in no way exposed to danger. The numbers of the Catholics increased 
every year, by individuals of other confessions who voluntarily joined 
them. The bishops and other members of the church were not abso- 
lutely precluded from access to the supreme head of the church ; on the 
contrary, an imperial agent at Rome interceded for them at the least 
possible expense in all their concerns with the Apostolic See. The regu- 
lations for Divine worship, which had been issued with the cognizance 
of the archiepiscopal ordinary at Vienna, did, it is true, limit the ex- 
cessive luxury exhibited at church services, but did not interfere with 
its edifying and solemn nature. The executive power, in matters of 
discipline, with regard to the diocesan clergy, had never been with- 
drawn from the bishops. They were allowed to administer the penal 
system of the canon law, without any interference on the part of the 
government, except in cases of deposition from cures, for which a pre- 
liminary consultation with the civil courts was required. It was requi- 
site also that the episcopal ordinances in general should receive the 
assent of the government before their publication. As a reason for this, 
we must, as it appears to us, refer to the claims which the state church 
had on the temporal power for the maintenance of its enactments. The 
4th of March, 1849, had cancelled those claims ; their effects, conse- 
quently ceased also, and the anticipations of the benefits ensuing from 
it, both to the Church and to the State, called forth expressions of joy. 
But why were those rejoicings combined with invectives against the 
Austrian government previous to the month of March ? Why must we, 
for instance, hear and read language like the following ? — 

" The ears and the mouth of the holy father have now at last been 
freed from their unworthy fetters, and the mortifying barriers have 
been removed within which suspicion had confined him." 

" Let the network of petty considerations and anxieties be now rent 



44 GENESIS OF THE 

Liguorians, — and the use made of the police authority to 
enforce obedience to mere ecclesiastical regulations (for 
example, the infliction of punishment for joining in music 
and dancing, even in non-Catholic houses, on Fridays and 
Saturdays ; the orders given to tavern-keepers, and which 
occasioned so much coarse wit, on days of abstinence, to 
separate those who ate meat from those who followed the 
Catholic regulation of fasting), — such things were too much 
opposed to the habits and spirit of the age not to become 
subjects of complaint and ridicule, and, in most cases, to 
be wholly disobeyed. Most injurious to the non-Catholics 
was the established custom, that in the application of the 
law of toleration to the establishment of non-Catholic alms- 
houses and schools, the government officials required the 
opinion of the Catholic bishop as the ordinary ; for endless 
postponements of the decision were the consequence, whilst 
Catholic priests and bishops were placed in the disagreeable 
situation of being considered as lukewarm pastors, if they 
gave an instantaneous approbation, or of coming into collision 
with the authorities, if they raised objections and scruples 
from orthodox grounds, without any other result being pro- 
duced than that which the temporal authorities alone could 
have gathered from the enactments of the temporal law. 
Complaints of the non-Catholics, and dissensions with such 
of the Catholic clergy as could not wholly agree in opinion 



asunder, surrounded by which a suspicious watchfulness over the 
Church was regarded as the essence of political wisdom." 

" By the legislation of former times, the Church in Austria was con- 
demned to sink down into a state of utter exhaustion," &c. &c. 

Might not similar language, — as it reproaches the Austrian govern- 
ment up to the 18th of April, 1850, with hostile sentiments against the 
Catholic Church and the Pope, — have been more appropriately uttered 
by those political fanatics of Italy, who in such reproaches find sophis- 
tical reasons for those crusades, which they, two years back, undertook 
with consecrated arms against Austria ? 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 45 

with the authorities, were the consequence of such an objec- 
tionable course. 

From this hasty sketch it is evident that the Austrian 
system of government was untenable, since it depended upon 
maxims which were in contradiction to one another. The 
force of circumstances, personal influence, or mere chance, 
gave the preponderance to one or other of these maxims 
alternately, and the conduct of the government acquired 
thereby an uncertain and wavering character, and it lost 
all respect and confidence. There is a certain species of 
envious and malicious satisfaction inseparable from human 
nature, which evinces itself in endeavouring to discover the 
weak points of any authority to which we are subject, and 
in preferring to display them to public notice rather than 
point out its peculiar advantages. Accordingly by follow- 
ing such a course every defect of the government was ren- 
dered much more prominent than the good qualities by 
which it was distinguished, and which were both numerous 
and valuable. It would not be easy to find a govern- 
ment in whose eyes the prerogatives of justice were held 
more sacred than the Austrian — a government by which 
equality before the laws in every condition was more dis- 
interestedly recognized, which more sedulously promoted 
the real welfare of its subjects, or exhibited greater zeal in 
examining the best means whereby this welfare could be 
secured for every rank of life. The establishment of the 
national school system has been acknowledged by foreigners 
well versed in such matters to be one of the best of its kind 
in Europe, and its further improvement has ever been an 
object of constant anxiety with the government. To what 
a, height education was carried in natural history, mathema- 
tics, physics, chemical and technical science, may be best 
illustrated by the inxpulse given to trade, commerce, and 



46 GENESIS OF THE 

manufactures, the productions of which enter into competition 
•with those of foreign countries ; and particularly by the con- 
struction of immense public works ; for example, the rail- 
roads, the most difficult in Europe, in whose construction no 
other persons than native engineers, educated in native 
institutions, were employed. The course was open to indi- 
viduals of all nations, all classes, and all Christian creeds, to 
attain the highest offices of the state ; hundreds of examples 
could be adduced in support of this assertion, but it will 
suffice to allude to the two last presidents* of the Exche- 
quer chamber (the ministers of finance, properly so termed), 
both of whom, without the advantages of noble blood, or 
connection with influential officials, or the gifts of fortune, 
attained their high position and baronial rank by means of 
their own personal merit alone, and to the vice-president of 
the superior court of justice, Baron von Gartner, and to the 
court councillor in the united court chancery, Baron von 
Erossdikj both of whom were non-Catholics. It was not 
the rule to inquire into the nationality of an official. The 
great majority of officials, even in the higher departments, 
sprang from the rank of citizens. Promotion in the army 
was attained by men of all nations and all creeds, by- 
citizens as well as by nobles. Offences in the nature of parti- 
zanship and of patronage exercised by individual superiors 
in appointments and promotions are by no means rare in 
constitutional states, and even in republics. In Austria, 
therefore, they did not arise from the system of absolute 
government, to which at most indulgence to the offenders 
might be imputed. The discovery of faults and errors in a 
system of government should never render us blind to its 
advantages. The unmeasured abuse with which the Austrian 
press, as soon as it became free, in the middle of March, 

* Baron d'Eichhoff and Charles Ered. Baron Kubeck. — Ed. 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 47 

assailed the government which had existed prior to the 
month of March, must fill all unprejudiced persons with 
contempt and disgust. Whoever may have read in the 
daily press the charges of a crushing coercion and of a sys- 
tematic stupifying influence practised, by Austria against her 
subjects, without ever having visited the country ; whoever 
may have read in the Constitution (No. 174, p. 1637), a 
paper glowing with love for the people, that before the days 
of March the Austrian peasant and the ox that drew his 
plough were on a perfect equality, and then immediately 
after those days may have observed how, in spite of this 
crushing coercion, in spite of this universal stupefaction, a 
thousand gallant combats for liberty took place in all 
quarters of the empire ; how a thousand keen and enlight- 
ened statesmen arose, who, by speech and writing, taught 
their profound wisdom in unions, clubs, provincial assemblies, 
and parliaments, by the aid of books, newspapers, and mural 
advertisements — a thousand philosophers, who announced 
the results of their sagacious inquiries — a hundred thousand 
electors, who were capable of choosing lawgivers for Buda- 
pest, Yienna, Frankfurt, and half a dozen Austrian provin- 
cial parliaments, — such an unprejudiced witness must be asked 
to believe that the deluge of March carried away all the 
enslaved, and stupified population of the Austrian empire 
into the depth of the ocean, and that a new host, like 
Pyrrha and Deucalion, came forth from the House of Assem- 
bly at Yienna and the Hall of the Diet at Presburg, who, 
by their successful exertions, caused the demoralized, ignorant 
mob, of the days antecedent to March, to rise up well-in- 
structed and accomplished citizens, ripe and ready to under- 
take the duties of self-government. 

If, in accordance with a sense of honour, it be mean and 
unworthy to insult a fallen foe, what judgment does the 



48 GENESIS OF THE 

abuse of a. fallen government deserve, — a government which, 
without an effort to defend itself by arms, yielded to the 
loudly-expressed opinion of the people ; which, though it 
may be charged with errors in the course it adopted, can 
never be accused of malevolent intentions. The system 
which it adopted, sprang from the conviction of the heart 
and the conscience of the Emperor Francis. He and his suc- 
cessor recognized in this system the conditions on which the 
empire depended for its existence, and the most certain 
means for advancing and establishing the happiness of 
their people : their most distinguished statesmen enter- 
tained this conviction, and honourably supported it. The 
future alone can show whether they were in error, whe- 
ther they misunderstood the notion of popular happiness : 
enemies of the nation, however, such an error could not 
render them.* No notion is more relative to the individual 

* .The allusion to this conviction of the Emperor Francis, has brought 
upon this work the suspicion of reactionary tendencies, though it has 
pronounced no opinion upon the soundness or error of that conviction. 
Whether the views of the Emperor Francis and of his successor were 
correct or otherwise, experience alone will show. It would be prema- 
ture to found a definitive sentence concerning them upon the events 
which have hitherto transpired. In the course of the year 1848, pain- 
ful apprehensions could not but be excited in the breast of every 
Austrian as to the soundness of the convictions which the Emperor 
Francis entertained. Everything was out of joint ; the Imperial Diet 
had only uttered what tended to destruction and disorganization ; even 
the conservative party in it maintained its name only by its efforts to 
preserve the monarchical principle and social order, whilst it did not 
exert itself to keep up the union between those races, which constitute 
the empire, and the entire dissolution of that union was only averted in 
1848 and 1849, by a resort to the most absolute of all powers, the force 
of arms. The veil of the future still conceals what will again be at- 
tempted, when the so-called exceptional state of things will have to 
make way for the true constitutional system in various parts of the 
empire. When each citizen of the empire, though the first words, which 
by a mother's teaching, he has been able to stammer forth, may have be- 
longed to the German, Magyar, Wallachian, Italian, cr some Sclavonic 
language — when he, after the example of the citizens of the United 
Kingdom on the other side of the English Channel (who, in spite of 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 4£ 

than that of happiness. What one person considers as hap- 
piness, another regards as misfortune. The tranquil fisher- 
man, who, after successful casts of his net, steers his smoothly- 
gliding bark, laden with rich spoil, to his native shore, 
considers it happiness, if the undisturbed sea allows his boat 
freely to obey the rudder \ whilst the bold sailor, on the 
contrary, who at the same time impatiently awaits in the 
harbour the moment for his departure, in order speedily to 
reach a distant coast, considers it a misfortune if a fresh gale 
does not spring up to impel the waves in the direction of his 
course, which, tossing his vessel on the foaming billows, may 
bear it, with expanded sail and redoubled speed, to its wished- 
for destination. The Emperor of Austria and his council 
resembled the fisherman, — the popular leaders were like the 
sailor ; but can this difference in intention afford a reason 
for suspecting the designs of the former, or loading their 
names with contumely '? One may expose error without 
abusing the individual who errs, as unfortunately has oc- 
curred, and may again happen. With difficulty was the 
statue of the Emperor Francis, in the square of Vienna, pro- 
being Scotch, Irish, or English, exult in the common name of Britons), 
shall feel himself most honoured by the name of " citizen of Austria," 
and by the exclamation of " Hail Austria," shall be ennamed to patri- 
otic enthusiasm, like the Briton by his " Rule Britannia :" when respect 
for the law, and the consciousness of a duty to see it enforced, even at 
the sacrifice of self, shall have gained undisputed possession of the heart 
of every citizen of Austria, when there shall be no difference of opinion 
with the government of the time being as to whether there should be a 
great, powerful, and united Austria, but only as regards the ways and 
means to maintain and secure its grandeur, its power, and its unity, — 
when the Magna Charta of his liberties, and the Habeas Corpus Act, 
shall not be used by the Austrian as a bulwark behind which the dis- 
trust of the people against the intentions of the government shall 
intrench itself, but they shall rather serve as a guarantee of confidence 
between the governing and the governed ; when all these conditions 
shall have been fulfilled, it will be shown to have been an error to sup- 
pose that the existence of the Austrian Empire was fundamentally 
based upon the principle of pure monarchy. 

E 



50 GENESIS OF THE 

tected from the fiuy of a fanatical mob. The bones of the 
emperor were to have been torn from their resting-place, and 
exposed upon the ramparts of Yienna to the bullets of the 
imperial troops, who were struggling with the insurrection. 

The minister'"" whose name this system of government bore, 
because he held the portfolio of foreign affairs from the year 
1809, and who was obliged to be the representative before 
the world of this system of the emperor, agreeing as 
it did with his own innermost conviction, became an ob- 
ject of general hatred and calumny. To his colleague, t who, 
from the year 1826, assisted him in piloting the vessel 
of Austria, was attributed the gross injustice of asserting, 
that he was hostile to this system, and yet maintained a post 
in which he contributed to its support ; conduct which in 
an honourable, independent statesman would have been a 
moral impossibility. In particular cases, there must neces- 
sarily have existed differences of opinion between two states- 
men, one of whom pursued his course abroad, with his atten- 
tion directed chiefly to Europe, whilst the other confined 
his observation to the interior of the empire, and so attained 
the highest eminence in the state, including a nomination to 
the supreme council, — differences respecting the application of 
state maxims, — but to neither of them should it be imputed 
as a reproach that he subjected his own individual sentiments 
in such cases to the opinion of the absolute sovereign ; but 
as to condemning the system of government, it cannot be 
conceived possible that a statesman would keep his place 
where his principles could not be reduced to practice, unless 
he had to expect on his retirement, that the silken bow-string- 
would be forwarded to him, by an exasperated sultan. 

We have given our opinion so freely respecting the state 

* Prince Metternich.— Ed. f Count Kolo wrath.— Ed. 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 51 

machinery and system of government of Austria, that we 
believe we may, without sxibjecting ourselves to the charge 
of reactionary tendencies, venture, as unprejudiced and inde- 
pendent spectators, in opposition to exaggeration and mis- 
representation, to speak the truth, even though it should be 
in favour of the government as it existed before March. 

The preservation of peace in Europe for a period of thirty- 
three years, to which it cannot be denied that Austria con- 
tributed a decisive assistance, ought to have some favourable 
influence upon the friends of the people, who exhausted 
themselves in denunciations against the chief Austrian 
statesmen previous to March. 

The credit which the Austrian exchequer enjoyed through- 
out Europe previous to March, in spite of the difficulties it 
had to contend with, of which the interest on Yienna bank- 
notes, and the high course of exchange upon government bills 
up to March, 1848, affords a proof, will serve to show that 
the Argus-eyes of the European moneyed powers, which could 
not surely overlook the government in Austria, found never- 
theless no reason for suspecting that a state bankruptcy was 
about to occur. 

The security which person, honour, and property enjoyed 
in Austria, may afford a proof that Themis, even though the 
old government clung to her, had made proper use of her 
scales and sword. 

Mercury, during the time of the old government, could 
scarcely have been less favourable to Austrian commerce 
than he has shown himself since its abdication. 

Mars and Bellona have, in truth, since the fall of the old 
government, again restored to the Austrian army that high 
fame which had made her warriors, during many years, the 
object of universal honour and admiration; but this army 
was not called suddenly from the earth by a stamp of the foot 

e 2 



52 GENESIS OF THE 

on the part of those who exercised power subsequent to 
March \ the education of the army, the spirit whicli 
influenced it, its organization, which in the moment of 
necessity rendered its increase and full development a pos- 
sibility, were the work of many years' exertions, during 
the epoch of the old government. If, however, we must 
thankfully acknowledge the destruction of the old govern- 
ment as an improvement, let us not inconsiderately condemn 
an age and a race of men who could not enjoy this improve- 
ment, as thousands have condemned them since the days of 
March, and amongst whom are many who, under that very 
government, gradually rose to the highest posts of office and 
honour, without ever giving expression to their discontent. 
The Austrian government, as it existed before March, is 
often subjected to the reproach of having lagged behind other 
governments in the race of improvement, because it could 
not decide how it should step forward. But let those who, 
with the bitterest feelings, indulge in this reproach, ask their 
own consciences whether they have not themselves given 
cause for such indecision. An improvement, for example, is 
inconceivable without a change of situation ; but when, before 
the days of March, some comfortable post was destined to be 
abolished in consequence of an improvement intended by the 
government, its possessors had recourse to eveiy means in 
their power to enable them to retain it. It was part of the 
paternal character of the government to lend an ear to those 
who apprehended injury from the abolition of the post 
which they enjoyed ; and thus, many an important reform 
split upon this rock. Was it not, for example, the cry of 
terror raised by a few of the manufacturing classes that, a 
few years ago, prevented the change * projected by the govern- 

* This change has been carried into effect by Prince Schwarzenberg's 
administration. 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 53 

iaent from a prohibitive to a protective system of customs 1 
Who threw obstacles in the way of a more rapid improve- 
ment in the plan introduced to effect a general engineering 
survey of the country, by curtailing the pecuniary grant 
which, from the beginning, had been annually dedicated to 
that purpose 1 Who prevented the proportionate taxation 
of home-manufactured sugar determined upon many years 
before, with respect to which branch of industry the English, 
who were fully qualified to form an opinion in this respect, 
considered that the loss which the state finances would 
thereby suffer in the duty on cane-sugar, was nothing else 
but a source of profit to the producer 1 Who delayed, by 
refusing to introduce the conscription, and to abolish the privi- 
lege of the nobility on the subject of bearing arms, the intro- 
duction of a timely law of recruiting 1 Would no impedi- 
ments have been offered to a compulsory removal of the 
burdens pressing on the land and soil, if the government 
had proposed it, by those who were in perpetual conflict 
with the government authorities, for seeming to show more 
partiality to the villein, than to the freeholder of the 
soil, or by those who, shortly before the eventful year 1848. 
had proposed to the government, for the greater protection of 
the right of shooting, to forbid the sale of a hare, or a par- 
tridge, or any other game, unless the seller was qualified with 
a previous license ? How would an equal toleration of all 
religions in the eye of the government have been received by 
those provincial authorities, who, in one province, * on the 
ground of ancient privileges, had required and obtained the 
banishment of numerous families natives of the soil, because, 
forsooth, they did not live in the bosom of the Catholic Church ; 
whilst, in another province, the costly gift of a foreigner, who 

* In the Ziller-Thal, where before the charter of March 4, 1849, the 
Roman Catholic Church was exclusively dominant. — Ed. 



54 GENESIS OF THE 

was allowed by the government to purchase land, and which 
he, from motives of gratitude, had dedicated to a generally 
useful and long-desired object, was rejected, because the 
generous donor was a Jew ? And with regard to the 
freedom of the press, we venture to ask whether many of 
those who, as friends of literature and art, complained the 
loudest and the boldest on the subject of the censorship, as it 
existed before March, against reviews of a pamphlet or a 
play, did not feel themselves aggrieved by the lukewarm 
censorship exercised by their own officials, when their indi- 
vidual vanity or interests were thereby aggrieved i The 
president of the police may answer this question by a 
reference to his proceedings. 

Though it may betoken irresolution and weakness on the 
part of the Austrian government before the month of March, 
deplorable and highly deserving of censure, that she suffered 
herself to be impeded in her progress by such a host of petty 
obstacles, it ill becomes those who have derived advantage 
from such irresolution and weakness to stand forward now, 
as the bitterest accusers of that government, and seek to 
proscribe its supporters, because less progress was made 
than the spirit of the age demanded, less than has been 
undertaken since the days of March, when those opposing 
obstacles were removed. The powers, the mini stry, and 
Diet which succeeded it, have not put a stop to the 
former " vis inertise," nor the activity of former selfish- 
ness, since those who, before the events of March, raised 
their voices loudest against every change in their situation, 
were afterwards silenced, and bore with resignation what- 
ever happened to them. Till the dissolution of the Diet, 
the activity of the new authorities was particularly devoted 
to the work of demolition ; the rebuilding came afterwards. 
Upon that task the present government is actively engaged. 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 55 

No town council, no aristocratical or clerical influence, no 
imperial cabinet, no council of state, and, at the present 
moment, no parliament, or diet, comes with its obstacles and 
delays in the way. # The officers under the ministry must 
yield unconditional obedience to its commands, since he who 
cannot or will not instantly obey, is now immediately 
replaced by another, t No regard to the maintenance of the 
paternal character of the government, as it existed before 
March, can impede the exercise of its full powers. Pater- 
nal affection can never be the attribute of a constitutional 
government, whose authorities are responsible for their con- 
duct, not to a warm-hearted and feeling ruler, but to the 
uncertain majority of a sharply-scruti n i zing parliament. 
Thus, the existing ministry is likely to complete with 
despatch the building which it has commenced. May it be 
so adapted to the wants of the country, and so durable, 
that future Diets may not be able to overturn, but may 
have it in their power to complete it. The architect of the 
present age may achieve greater works than his predecessors, 
since, in reconstructing the edifice of the state, he is not 
trammelled by all those considerations which must formerly 
have been noticed, even in slight alterations. "Whoever 

* Those words, written in the month of August, 1849, remain true 
in August, 1850. Ministerial propositions, examined by the ministers 
only, are from henceforth in great number, and in rapid succession 
transformed into legislative acts, in the shape of decrees or provisional 
laws. On the 1st of the month above mentioned, already 308 numbers 
of " The Government and Imperial Law Journal" (Eeichsgesetz und 
Kegierungsblatt) were filled with those decrees. Such an astonishing 
activity on the part of the ministers had never been anticipated. 

+ It is on this account that we see at present government officials, 
and those who are under their influence, bow down in a more respectful 
manner before the responsible and constitutional ministers and their 
deputies. It likewise supplies the reason why we see ministers express 
their satisfaction with subordinate authorities by cabinet letters in the 
public journals, in a manner which previously used to be exclusively 
adopted by the absolute emperor only. 



5G GENESIS OF THE 

possesses a house which, although old, is habitable, will cer- 
tainly not decide upon a change in the building, without first 
well examining if the firm connection of the other parts may 
not, perhaps, be endangered by the alteration, and whether 
substantial means are forthcoming for the completion of the 
building. But whoever sees his house destroyed by an earth- 
quake, does not consider about the most convenient mode of 
rebuilding it, but provides the means of doing so, at any price, 
even by issuing securities, which may absorb part of the future 
rent. So it happened now in re-constructing the demolished 
edifice of the state in Austria, Many of the changes adopted 
at present were previously contemplated, and were only de- 
layed because the means for that purpose were not forthcoming. 
The suppression of hereditary courts of justice, the establish- 
ment of a gendarmerie, the alterations in prisons, and houses 
of correction, the improving the condition of the instructors 
of youth, the extinction of villeinage, and other changes, were 
admitted, and encouraged by previous statesmen of the old 
government, as consistent with well-recognized theories ; 
but the millions of florins which were annually required for 
the existing necessities of the state, were wanting to cany 
out these changes, and as experience proved that an altera- 
tion which materially concerns the state, is sure at some 
time to be effected, they were unwilling to oppress the 
present or future tax-payers with new burdens for these 
improvements.* But the people, who since that time have 

* We may judge of the amount of these expenses from several data 
which have become public. The administration of justice, which, up to 
1848, claimed about 2-£ millions of florins from the State treasury, 
required 12 millions in 1850. The four ministerial departments, the 
attributes of which were formerly comprised in the Court-Chancery, the 
Court-Commission of Studies, the Police, and the Court-Censorship, 
and which usually figured in the State budget under the head of " Poli- 
tical funds and establishments," with an expenditure of about 16^- 
millions of florins, and under the head of "Police," with 2-h millions of 



KEVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 57 

attained a partnership in the sovereignty, have misunderstood 
this unwillingness ; they have torn down the old state edifice, 

florins, consequently with an annual total expenditure of 18^ millions : 
these four ministerial departments, viz. that of the Interior, that of 
Ecclesiastical Affairs and Public Instruction, that of Commerce, Industry, 
and Public Buildings, and that of Agriculture, have in the first quarter 
of 1850 absorbed already 9,112,692 florins. Accordingly, the total 
expenditure of the current year may rise to 36 millions of florins, which 
will be almost double that of former years. The national debt, which 
up to 1848, entailed an annual charge of about 49 millions of florins, 
has cost the nation in the first quarter of 1850 already 13,960,618 
florins ; the expense for the whole year will consequently rise to 5Q 
millions. The army will cause the most considerable increase of expen- 
diture in the budget of the constitutional empire. The amount required 
for its support during the time of the absolute monarchy, notwith- 
standing the preparations for war against France in 1841, and the 
reinforcements sent into Lombardy, never exceeded 55 millions in any 
year, but according to the results of the first quarter, its cost will 
amount, in 1850, to 125 millions. There is a probability of a diminution 
in this sum of about four millions, if the fratricidal dispute in federal or 
confederate Germany, as to G-erman unity, should be adjusted without the 
roar of cannon. The expenses, however, of the army will not, and cannot 
be reduced again to their ancient limits, as they existed before March ; for 
to Austria the w T ords now apply which the deputy to the Spanish Cortes 
at Madrid, Donoso Cortes, Marquis de Valdegamos, uttered during the 
discussion on the budget, on July 30, 1850, when he declared himself 
against the reduction of the army, viz. " That in our days the armies alone 
prevent civilization from being dried up in the bottomless sands of barba- 
rism, inasmuch as the world has now before its eyes the strange phenomenon 
of the force of ideas leading to barbarism, and the force of arms pressing 
forward to civilization" Thus greatly augmented expenses demand 
larger contributions on the part of the free citizens to cover them. The 
land-tax has already been raised about one-third, the tax on houses 
about the same ; the stamp duty has equally been augmented. There 
has also been imposed a new income-tax, and a new duty of 3-£ per cent, 
of the value upon the transfer of immovable property. We do not refer 
to these fresh burdens with the intent of loading the present ministry 
with reproach ; there is no blame attached to them : those burdens are 
the inevitable results, although they are not yet fully developed, of 
what was acquired for the people in the year 1848, both by their self- 
styled and by their duly elected representatives. The ministers even 
spared the fathers in some degree by raising credit, for which the sons 
and grandsons will have to be answerable. They resorted, for instance, 
to paper money, to assignments on the revenues, to assignments on the 
central chest, to Exchequer-bills, to State loans, and to the capitalization 
of interest. It is right and equitable that the next generation should 
not be established in the enjoyment of their gains, without having cause 



58 GENESIS OF THE 

and thereby imposed upon themselves the task of bearing 
the expense of erecting another building adapted to the 
wants of the age. Their noble profusion may excite aston- 
ishment i the anxiety of the present architect of the state to 
avail himself of such extravagance may be approved, and 
the timidity of his predecessors be lamented, but no ground 
is thereby furnished for detesting and depreciating those, 
who evinced more solicitude for the taxation of the people, 

to remember the distress of the present generation. The free communes, 
which are the basis of a free state, claim, like it, sacrifices which were 
previously not at all required, or only to a small extent. The two 
spheres of activity for the communes, marked out by the communal 
law of the 17th of March, 1849, viz. the natxwal one and that conferred 
upon them, comprise so many functions, with which government or patri- 
monial officials were formerly charged, that their management will 
entail loss of time, labour, and money on the part of the members of 
the communes. 

Besides the burdens of the free communes, the citizen of a free state 
has, in addition, the personal obligation to act as an elector, as a national 
guardsman, as a member of the communal council, and as a sworn jury- 
man ; services which not only deprive him of his time — to millions as 
valuable as money — but which were previously unknown to him, and were 
attended to by soldiers, officials, and courts of justice, which received 
their remuneration from the state. The people's coming of age, in 1848, 
lias consequently been bought at a very high price. We trust that it 
may be to the nation a source of happiness and prosperity. In Vienna 
and in Prague, where, in 1848, the loudest declamations were ii£terg^ 
against the guardianship of the government, there does not appear to 
have been any great rejoicings in respect of their lately acquired rights ; 
if the zeal, with which those rights are exercised, is to be regarded as a 
measure of it. At Vienna, both the press and the government had to 
muster all their strength in order, at last, to induce 6,217 persons, out 
of the large number of citizens, to inscribe their names in the electoral 
lists. The president of the college of the constituency of the city of 
Prague was, on the 17th of June, 1850, obliged to declare, " that the 
neglect of the city constituency in regard to their duty of attending at 
the sessions, would compel him for the future to publish the names of 
the absent members, especially as there were several members who had 
never yet been present." We would, under these circumstances, ven- 
ture to ask the question, whether the ministers who were in power be- 
fore the month of March in Austria, might not merit a bill of indemnity 
as regards the charge made against them of not having, of their own 
accord, granted to the people those rights which the latter have ac- 
quired at so high a price, and with such few reasons, apparently, of 
rejoicing at the result. 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 59 

than seems to actuate the people themselves. Their inten- 
tions were good, their conduct was in accordance with their 
intentions, but unfortunately secured no approbation, because 
the views of the people were not in unison with their own. 

The people may now rejoice that their views are carried 
out, but should hesitate to sully the purity of their joy, by 
unjust reflections upon those who, under different circum- 
stances, were compelled to adopt a different line of conduct. 

We beg the reader will attribute no other object to these 
remarks, than a wish to dissipate his prejudices respecting 
the Austrian statesmen during the time of absolute monarchy, 
and by this means enable him to form a correct opinion of 
them. N 

COMMOTIONS PREVIOUS TO MARCH, 1848. 

The introduction of moderate reforms was confidently ex- 
pected on the accession of the Emperor Ferdinand ; their 
postponement increased the discontent which already existed ; 
at the same time the want of that determined will and ex- 
perienced hand which belonged to the old emperor was 
clearly perceptible. The feelings of discontent were uttered 
in louder tones than heretofore, and paved the way to dis- 
turbances which gradually increased in all parts of the 
monarchy, emanating from the higher and middle classes of 
society, and finding acceptance amongst the lower orders of 
the people, in consequence of the pressure of the taxes, 
and more particularly of two measures of finance, namely, 
the tax* upon articles of food and drink, and the stamp act, 
which appeared in the year 1840, and whose provisions were 
advantageous to the rich. 

These commotions resolve themselves into two great 

o 

* Verzehrungsteuer, a tax corresponding to the octroi in Prance, levied 
at the gates of towns upon all articles of food and drink. Ed. 



GO GENESIS OF THE 

classes, namely, those of which the principal aim was to effect 
an absolute separation from the empire, and those which con- 
templated the extension and establishment of the right of 
the people to participate in the government. The struggle 
after national supremacy was common to both. 

The commotions in the Polish and Italian parts of the 
empire belong to the first class ; the commotions in Hungary 
and Transylvania, as also in Bohemia and Moravia, and the 
German provinces, belong to the second. 

In order thoroughly to understand the events which 
occurred after March, 1848, it must be particularly kept in 
mind, that the high or privileged classes of the people com- 
pletely agreed with the intelligent middle classes in one 
chief point, namely, in their aversion to the system of go- 
vernment, and their mistrust in the efficiency of the state 
machine, as well as in their wish to alter both ; but in all 
further views they were diametrically opposed to each other. 
The first class, for example, wished, upon the ruins of the 
existing edifice, to erect a building in which they might 
occupy the best and most convenient apartments, and 
graciously leave to the others the occupation of the attics 
and the garrets. The other class wished, on the contrary, to 
complete a building, in which all apartments should be alike, 
but in which they should leave no room for the first class. 
Both these parties exerted themselves together to tear 
down the existing edifice, with the intention, when the time 
should come for reconstruction, of claiming the building- 
ground for themselves. Hence the apparent harmony in 
the work of destruction until the days of March, and the 
subsequent disunion. 

Besides this general difference in the motive, there existed 
in the several parts of the empire the essential difference 
in the object in view, which has been above alluded to. 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 61 

The tendency to insurrection was first embodied in action 
in the Polish parts of Austria, namely, in Galieia, in the 
winter of the year 1846. But the disturbances there ori- 
ginated from another source, and had another object than 
those which took place in the other parts of the empire ; they 
sprang from recollections of the ancient kingdom of Poland, 
and they contemplated its restoration ; the spirit which 
actuated them was not democratic, since their object was not 
to elevate the people to a participation in the government, 
but to establish a Polish dominion in place of the Austrian, 
which latter was to be suppressed. For this reason, its 
authors did not succeed in seducing the people ; but the 
latter crushed the revolution in its birth. It is very remark- 
able that the government was taken by surprise and unpre- 
pared, although the civil and military chief of the province 
had held the reins of government in his hands for fourteen 
years, and was an archduke of the house of Este, a family of 
whom it cannot be said that it is not quick in spying out 
revolutionary tendencies. The key to this difficulty may be 
found in the fact, that the archduke directed his attention 
more to the movements of the poor and inconsiderable 
democrats, and was not a match for the hypocrisy of the 
deceitful and treacherous Polish aristocracy, by whom he 
was ensnared.* This revolution, so soon subdued, might have 

* The editor of the "Historische Blatter, by G. Philipps and G. 
Gorres," remarks on this head, at page 26 of the first number for 1850, 
* ' that, according to the evidence of other well-informed judges of those 
affairs, the archduke was not only far from being " ensnared" but, on the 
contrary, was fully aware of the hypocrisy and deception of the revolu- 
tionary Polish nobles ; that he had, however, imagined them to be un- 
willing heedlessly to bring about their own certain ruin, at their own 
risk and expense, considering the well-known dispositions of the pea- 
santry." We shall not raise a dispute as to the fact, whether the 
Governor-general of Galicia was taken by surprise by the revolt in 1846, 
because the Polish nobles had "ensnared" him, or rather because his 
confidence in their discretion had deceived him. The error was equal 



62 GENESIS OF THE 

furnished a wholesome warning to the Austrian government 
against similar surprises, but unfortunately it only regarded 
the favourable side of the transaction, namely, the assistance 
which it received from the people ; it considered this as the 
necessary result of the paternal system adopted by it, and it 
was strengthened in the delusion that this system would 
everywhere, even beyond the limits of Poland, enlist the 
sympathy and support of the people, without reflecting that 
the sympathy of the Galician peasantry arose chiefly from 
their antipathy to their Polish landlords, and from the re- 
collection, by no means remote, of the intolerable oppression 
which they had been forced to endure under the dominion 
of a Polish aristocracy. 

In Austrian Italy the commotions before March had a 
similar object as in Austrian Poland, since they were 
intended to effect a separation from the empire. But the 
important difference between them consisted in this, that 
the Poles had a fixed object in view, to which their strug- 
gles were directed, — the re-establishment of the ancient king- 
dom of Poland, whilst the Italians only had before then- 
eyes a something of which they disapproved, namely, the 
Austrian dominion, which was rather irritating to them 
by its petty goadings, and wearisome by its tedious forms, 
than oppressive to their nationality, or regardless of their 

in either case as regards his discrimination of their sentiments. This is 
also the very reason why we do not concede to the editor of the " His- 
torische Blatter " the right of ascribing our remarks upon the conduct of 
the Archduke to the offence which "his profound Catholic convictions 
had, as was to be expected, at all times occasioned to the ruling officials, who 
propagated the principles and doctrines of Voltaire." We believe, how- 
ever, that these Catholic convictions could have no connection whatever 
with either of the two mistakes ; and we equally believe that those 
errors do not, in the slightest degree, darken the lustre of the arch- 
duke's noble character, or lessen the acknowledgment of the meritorious 
services which that prince of the imperial house has on so many occa- 
sions rendered to the throne and to the state. 



DEVOLUTION IN AUSTKIA. 63 

substantial interests. Hence it happened that whilst the 
Poles sought to attain their object by deeds, the Italians 
evinced their disapprobation like children or women, by- 
pouting, teasing, and abusing their masters, without the 
probability of ever coming to blows, if the apparent dissen- 
sion between the Pope and Austria, respecting the trans- 
action at Ferrara, and afterwards the ambition of the King 
of Sardinia, but more particularly the revival of the republic 
in France, had not awakened in them the hope of attaining 
this great end with little trouble. 

The strengthening of the Austrian garrison at Ferrara, 
undertaken in the year 1847, with military ostentation, was 
the result of a wish, which could not be misunderstood, to 
oppose a barrier to the disturbances likely to prove injurious 
to Austrian Italy, and which had been excited against the 
existing order of things by the fugitives who had been un- 
wisely pardoned en masse by the Pope, and had returned to 
the States of the Church. This proceeding was quite lawful 
for Austria, and was only the repetition of what had taken 
place under the previous Pope, Gregory XVI., and had been 
acknowledged by him with thanks. 

But the commander in Lombardy committed the ana- 
chronism of forgetting that in 1847 a different head wore 
the tiara, and that this head was influenced by different 
opinions. But the cabinet of Vienna cannot be blamed 
for this anachronism, for it first became acquainted with 
the fact when accomplished, and it was obliged, therefore, 
to assert its own legal rights. For the movement party, the 
protestation of the Papal government was a powerful wea- 
pon against Austria, since it afforded an ostensible ground to 
preach a crusade against the alleged enemies of the Church, 
in which course they were zealously assisted by the Italian 
priesthood, who are, for the most part, an ignorant body, 



64 GENESIS OF THE 

and who do not esteem the Germans to be genuine Catho- 
lics. By this course the movement party, who belonged to 
the middle and higher orders of society, obtained a support 
from the lower classes which they had previously wanted ; 
for in Italy, as elsewhere, the people who depended upon 
their own labour for support, were not disposed in favour 
of political strife, unless connected with their own personal 
interests, whether founded on prospective physical advan- 
tages, or on considerations of spiritual welfare, for which 
latter the Italian people (after their own fashion, by a 
display of outward religious practices) seem more anxious 
than the inhabitants of Germany. Moreover, the hope of 
expiating a multitude of sins by a manifestation of hatred 
against the German enemies of the Church produced a great 
effect upon the lower orders, particularly as a distribution of 
money, or other favours, was adopted by the rich, to connect 
their temporal with their eternal interests. The demon- 
strations against the Austrians, which had formerly been 
evinced by a few individuals only, and with great timi- 
dity, increased in both number and boldness. The police 
authorities, for preventing and repressing such excesses, 
were powerless against such a multitude of malcontents ; 
they were forced to limit their activity to the detection of 
the ringleaders ; but even in such efforts they were not fully 
successful, since their sub-officials lent them but indifferent 
aid. The measures which they employed failed in their 
object, and operated like goads, which provoke without 
destroying an antagonist. The course of events now as- 
sumed such an aspect, that it was easy to see the Austrian 
authority could be maintained by nothing else than military 
force. For this purpose the army in Italy was continually 
increased with great sacrifices on the part of the straitened 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 65 

exchequer.* It seems that those who conducted the mea- 
sures of defence were but ill read in Italian history, which 

* The commander in Italy had, in December, 1847, 55,000 men and 
5,600 horses at his disposal. The emperor ordered forthwith, in the 
same month, the Italian army to be increased by 9,800 men, and, in 
case of any greater emergency, further by 13,000 men and 1,000 
horses ; he ordered, likewise, the division of the troops into two army- 
corps, of which the first, in Lombardy, was to be composed of 29 move- 
able battalions, 22 squadrons, and 66 field-pieces, and 4 stationary bat- 
talions ; and the second, in the Venetian territory, of 17 moveable 
battalions, 14 squadrons, and 42 field-pieces, and of 7 stationary bat- 
talions. The emperor assigned to the Italian army, in the course of 
January, 1848, a fresh reinforcement of 9,000 men, with 2 batteries; 
it was thus raised to 85,000 men, to which, in February, 2 battalions of 
infantry, 6 squadrons, and 2 batteries were further added. The expense 
incurred by these reinforcements increased the army-budget of that 
year by 5,000,000 of florins ; and though an attack on the part of the 
King of Sardinia was at that time hardly credible, the new burden was 
nevertheless not shunned, for the sake of maintaining peace in the in- 
terior of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom. The greatest part of the 
Austrian forces in that kingdom consisted of Italian troops ; but almost 
up to the very commencement of the revolution their loyalty had not 
only not been doubted, but every allusion to such doubts — which are 
said not to have been wanting in the cabinet — was looked upon as a 
violation of military honour. This prejudice was so extensively pre- 
valent, that even in the month of February, when martial law against 
high treason and rebellion was proclaimed in the Lombardo-Venetian 
kingdom, and the military were made subject to it, this latter circum- 
stance was even in the highest circles of Vienna looked upon with 
displeasure, as an attack upon the honour of the soldier, although the 
field-marshal himself had consented to the measure. The subsequent 
perfidy of so many Italian battalions has furnished a sad proof of its 
having been adopted with good reason. 

Our allusion to this circumstance has been provoked by an attempt 
on the part of several persons to construe the remarks of "Genesis," 
on the rapid loss of the Italian provinces, as evincing ingratitude for the 
services of the grey-headed and victorious general. They were not, 
however, made in that sense. Eadetzky's glory springs from the mas- 
terly discipline he knew how to give to his troops — from the prudence 
with which, when the catastrophe had burst forth, he knew how to 
preserve them for future victories — from the foresight with which he 
waited for the opportunity for those victories, — and finally from the 
valour by which he gained them. It was perfectly true, as he said 
at the time of evacuating Lombardy, — "Milan has been, lost at 
Vienna," — for the events of Vienna caused both the rising of the 



66 GENESIS OF THE 

teaches that there the towns have ever controlled the pro- 
vinces, and that, therefore, whoever is master of the former 
can govern the latter, since, but for this ignorance, they 
would have found means in the troops which they com- 
manded, and in their munitions of war, to enable the garrisons 
of the large towns to strike a blow against their imperfectly 
armed antagonists, and defy a people who were so little expe- 
rienced in military affairs. It would not then have occurred, 
that, beginning with Milan, all the towns, except Mantua and 
"Verona, were evacuated by the imperial troops in the space of 
a week, without an attempt being made at bombardment, 
the most efficient means, as is universally admitted, of 
reducing insurrections in towns. Even during the contest 
in Milan, which lasted for several days, field-pieces alone 
and. no shells were employed, although the towers of the 
citadel completely commanded the town; indeed, it has 
been observed that the citadel was wholly unprovided with 
shells. This remarkable circumstance may have resulted 
from the timid character of the Austrian government ; and, 
paradoxical as it may sound, we cannot doubt the fact, when 
we reflect that in the government there existed an actual 
fear of the apprehension of danger ; and therefore it was 
that, notwithstanding the daily increasing tumult and daring 
conspiracy— -fronderie, as it may be termed (and German 
purists will excuse the foreign idiom, as no German word can 
so completely express the idea), — the government neglected 
to take timely and proper measures for enabling the garri- 

Miianese and the King of Sardinia's violation of the law of nations by 
the assistance which that king gave to the rebels. Grand and pro- 
phetic were the first words he pronounced, after his arrival at Verona, 
— "Nothing as yet is lost." We rejoice at his fame, but we feel also, as 
impartial observers, called upon to combat that erroneous opinion, which 
accuses the men who were in possession of the reins of government at 
Vienna before March, as having caused the first disasters of the Lom- 
bardo- Venetian kingdom by a denial of the necessary means of defence. 



REVOLUTION EST AUSTRIA. 67 

sons of the towns to defend them effectually against the 
mob, because they were afraid of evincing their fear of insur- 
rection by precautionary measures, which it was impossible 
to conceal. 

If this was indeed the cause of the incomplete measures of 
defence, we must observe with Horace, — " In vitium ducit 
culpa3 fuga, si caret arte." Since, how great soever may be 
the fault of a government, when, by a premature display of 
military power, it betrays a mistrust of its subjects who are 
but partially excited, it cannot be imprudent to exhibit its 
full preparations to a people who, by provocations and con- 
tinued abuse of the authorities, have long evinced their 
decided intention to overturn the government, thereby pro- 
voking the preventive and restrictive operations of police 
measures, and even the summary proceedings of military 
law, to suppress their political intrigues. The most un- 
fortunate event, however, which could have occurred, hap- 
pened in Milan, on the 3rd of January, 1848 : a few hun- 
dred soldiers, whom the disturbers of the public peace would 
not allow to smoke cigars, acting under the conviction that 
they would fail to receive protection from the authorities 
against the anger of the people, sought to procure justice for 
themselves by the aid of their weapons, and, in blind revenge, 
cut down the innocent with the guilty. This unfortunate act 
of self-defence aided the enemies of the Austrian government 
to excite the people to mad tumult, and they knew how to 
take advantage of this accidental circumstance, and for the 
same purpose they had recourse to another expedient. They 
influenced the deputy of the Milan Central Congregation, 
Nazzari, to lay a petition before that body, which was insti- 
tuted by the Emperor Francis for the representation of the 
landed interests, in which petition the grievances of the 
country were detailed and its wishes expressed. This 

f2 



68 GENESIS OF THE 

example was immediately imitated in Venice, and in the 
provincial assemblies, as well as in many municipalities, and 
by such means a universal commotion was excited. Such 
was the object of a step made under the pretence of loyalty. 
It would have been a serious mistake to believe that, even if 
this step had had a favourable result, the position of the 
Austrian government would have been improved in the eyes 
of the people, since the point in dispute was not the im- 
provement of their condition under an Austrian govern- 
ment, but their actual separation from it : every concession, 
therefore, would have been misused, in order to strengthen 
their means of opposing Austria. This was not suspected by 
the Austrian officials in the country, since they advised an 
immediate compliance with the popular demands, though it 
was at once perceived by the central authority in Vienna, 
who, in consequence of this conviction, and from an appre- 
hension of the effects which concessions in the Lombardo- 
Venetian kingdom might produce upon the other portions of 
the empire, refused to recede from its customary cautious 
course, and declined to give a decisive answer. That the 
plans of the Lombardo- Venetians were completely pene- 
trated, is now proved by the public admission of one of the 
most intelligent of the Milan insurgents, Carl Cattaneo, who, 
in his work, published in Paris, entitled " L'Insurrection de 
Milan en 1848," page 18, observes : " Les banquiers de Vi- 
enne insistaient deja aupres du Conseil Aulique (under which 
expression the Italians meant the central government, whose 
construction they never clearly understood), sur la necessity 
d'en venir avec nous a des transactions. Nous serions deve- 
nus libres par des franchises, et le conflit le serait engage & 
propos d'une innovation quelconque dans l'inipot." And again, 
page 38 : "Le moment etait favorable pour mettre en etat 
d'agir en fr£res d'armes de cette federation Italienne, a la- 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 6§ 

quelle la oonimunaute des interets nous conduisait naturelle- 
ment." From the acuteness of the Italians, especially of 
the Lombards, we cannot believe that they had attached 
much hope of success to this pretended loyal proceeding of 
their assemblies, since they knew too well the character of 
the Austrian government not to perceive, that the accordance 
of the important concessions to which they laid claim would 
not take place either quickly or easily. But the refusal or 
delay of the same they foresaw would be useful for their 
purpose, since it would afford new grounds of complaint 
against the government, and new materials for exciting the 
people. 

Whilst in the north-east and south-west parts of the, 
empire these commotions took place, with the object of 
effecting a separation, the other parts of the empire were not 
quiet. In these latter, however, the object in view was only 
the extension or recovery of old privileges, an increase of 
influence over the provincial administration, combined with 
a diminished degree of dependence upon the court officers of 
Vienna, and the resuscitation of their nationality. 

The character of these commotions was more or less 
decisive, according to the particular circumstances of the dif- 
ferent countries, two of which, namely, Hungary and Tran- 
sylvania, were in full possession of a long-established con- 
stitution of Estates, which secured to them an active share 
in the government ; others, however, in consequence of the 
events of the seventeenth century, possessed representative 
Estates, with certain privileges, but without exercising, by 
right, any decisive influence upon the legislation ; and others 
again, after their restoration in 1814, had been allowed 
representative bodies, with a very limited sphere of action. 
Some, as Salzburg, Yorarlberg, Goritz, Istria, and Dalmatia, 
had not yet received such a privilege. The greater or less 



70 GENESIS OF THE 

importance of the insurrection against the government was 
in proportion to the weight which was possessed by these 
provincial estates, or by the aristocracy, who always con- 
sidered themselves bound to throw down the gauntlet to the 
so-termed bureaucracy, arising partly from the extent of the 
privileges they possessed, and partly from their connection 
with members of the central government. 

The movement was most threatening in Hungary; its 
special object was to extend the municipal rights of the 
counties, and to increase the influence of the diet, with the 
view of crippling the power of the king in the administra- 
tion of the executive authority, which had hitherto been 
most carefully preserved, and at the same time to extend 
and establish the supremacy of the Magyars over the other 
races inhabiting the country. 

. Up to the year 1848 its tendencies were by no means of a 
democratic character. The privileged classes coquetted with 
the people in order to win their sympathy and to deprive 
the throne of the support it found in their dependence, but 
they never contemplated sharing their privileges with the 
people ; on the contrary, they endeavoured, under the old 
system of Estates which was the essence of the Hungarian 
constitution, to imitate the parliamentary language of those 
limited monarchies where a representative system existed, 
since, by this confusion of phrases, they had more room for 
their intrigues ; in particular they endeavoured, and not 
without some success, to establish the fiction that at the 
side of their irresponsible king, who was carefully and posi- 
tively protected by law from all impeachment, there should 
exist a separate administration, which, in consequence of this 
separate existence, they might with impunity, in the con- 
gregations of the counties, and the sittings of the diet, and 
even elsewhere, mistrust, abuse, and even degrade. The 



RESOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 71 

organs of the king hesitated at first to oppose this faction, 
which, in discharge of their duty, they ought to have done, 
because a separation of the sovereign from the government 
can only be tolerated in those states where a ministry, res- 
ponsible to the nation, stands in such a relation to the 
sovereign, that the latter can give validity to no act of 
government without the warrant of his minister. But in 
the Hungarian constitution a maxim of the very opposite 
nature prevailed. According to this maxim, there/ was no 
ministry, but only a royal chancellorship, appointed for the 
purpose of giving effect to the royal decrees, which should 
thus issue with the royal signature. How strictly this 
maxim was observed, even to the latest period, may be 
proved by the well-known circumstance, that even trans- 
actions such as a private gentleman, living in Vienna, was 
accustomed to intrust to his agent in Hungary, required to 
be confirmed by the king's sign manual before they were 
recognized by the Hungarian officials. 

The distinction artfully introduced between the king and 
his government was eagerly and cleverly taken advantage of 
by the movement party to dispute the royal commands, 
under the pretence that they were not the expression of his 
will, but the work of his ministry, hoping thereby to loosen 
the reins of legitimate authority. Every Hungarian diet 
ended by abridging the royal privileges, and the opposition 
never failed to assume a bolder attitude against the govern- 
ment under the warmest assertions of their respect and devo- 
tion to the person of the king. The prorogued diet of the 
years 1843-44 exhibited, in two occurrences, important symp- 
toms of the increasing discontent. The first took place imme- 
diately upon its opening : a law affecting religion, proposed by 
the king, was rejected by the Diet without observing the cus- 
tomary forms of deliberation, and without the deputies having 



rZ GENESIS OF THE 

received the usual instructions from their counties. The 
second consisted in the fact that the deputies of the adjoining 
provinces were impeded in the use of the Latin language, 
which, according to the rules of the constitution, was 
employed in the debates. A dissolution of the Diet by 
the king would have been a bold step, which, if properly 
followed up, would probably have checked the threatened 
evil ; this step, however, was not taken, because the ruler of 
Hungary, like a man who, when attacked, delays to dis- 
charge his pistol for fear of the report, wished to avoid the 
excitement which such a step would have excited at home and 
abroad. The privileges of the adjoining provinces were sacri- 
ficed by the introduction of a law which obliged the deputies of 
the N Hungarian diet, after a period of six years, to use the 
Magyar language, an unknown and detested tongue, in place 
of the Latin language, which they spoke fluently, and in 
which, according to the constitution, all their proceedings 
had been hitherto carried on. From this time the hostility 
between the Slavonic race and the Magyars increased from 
day to day, and in Croatia often led to bloody contests. In 
the Hungarian counties the revolutionary party, which, in 
the technical language of the representative system, termed 
itself the Opposition, became still bolder. The Obergespanns 
and the Administrators of Counties, the only persons ap- 
pointed by the crown, were accustomed to consider their 
honours as sinecures, and to leave their business to be trans- 
acted by a temporary substitute called a Yice-gespan, who 
was chosen by the Estates of each county, and seldom had 
the will or the power and necessary authority to insure 
obedience to the laws and commands of the king. It thus 
necessarily occurred that every county, under the pretence 
of maintaining its own authority, degenerated into a sort of 
republic, which usurped that share in the legislation which 



REVOLUTION LN T AUSTRIA. 73 

properly belonged to the diet, since in the county assem- 
blies the questions to be proposed for the consideration of 
the two legislative tables were previously discussed, reso- 
lutions adopted, and the charge of these resolutions com- 
mitted to the deputies of the counties as a duty, which 
obligation the deputies felt themselves obliged strictly to 
discharge, as their electors possessed the power of recalling 
them during the sitting of the Diet, and of naming others 
in their places. This authority of the counties, which crip- 
pled the operations of the diet, was no part of the original 
constitution j like many other abuses, it crept in surrepti- 
tiously, and became at last sanctioned by custom. To bring 
the counties to order there was no other plan for the govern- 
ment than to bring back the office of the Obergespanns and 
the Ad minis trators to their original duties, and to insist 
that those officials should reside in the counties with which 
they were intrusted, and should preside as chairmen in the 
transaction of aH administrative business as well as in 
judicial proceedings (sedrien). It was evident that many 
of these, on account of other offices which they filled, 
or of their own private circumstances, could not reside 
within the circle of their duties, and could not therefore 
fulfil the intentions of government. In addition, the pe- 
cuniary sacrifices which their offices entailed, were not 
recompensed by the small remuneration which they re- 
ceived from the country, and therefore the government was 
obliged, out of its own resources, to provide for them the 
large yearly salary of 5,000 or 6,000 florins, stipulating that 
those who filled another office should vacate it. This resto- 
ration of the office of obergespann and of the administrators 
of counties to their original intention was called the 
"Appony system," although the measure was actually 
adopted in the diet of the year 1844, before Appony 



74 GENESIS OF THE 

was appointed to the Hungarian court chancellorship ; but 
inasmuch as he had to complete the measure, in general 
opinion he was considered its author, and on this account 
was hated and violently attacked, because the movement 
party were sensible of the great influence which must result 
therefrom to the king in the counties, and therefore opposed 
it with all their power. This was an easy task, because 
many of those officials, whose own interests were affected, 
and who were unable or unwilling to act consistently with 
the altered duties of their situations, which they were 
therefore compelled to resign, notwithstanding their attach- 
ment to the king, made no secret of their dissatisfaction, and 
because, moreover, errors occurred in the election of the per- 
sons who were chosen to succeed them. In several counties 
there was. much opposition to the appointment of adminis- 
trators, whose number considerably increased, because the 
obergespanns were immoveable, and they were appointed to 
replace such of those dignitaries, who, without submitting 
to the new law, showed an unwillingness to retire from 
their offices. 

The right of presiding in the Sedrien was violently 
combated, because the new obergespanns and adminis- 
trators were considered as pensioners of the king, who 
ought not to exercise any influence over a judicial office. 
The weakness of many of those who enjoyed the royal con- 
fidence, which prevented them from asserting their consti- 
tutional rights, increased the boldness of their opponents ; 
the consequence was, that these measures, supported though 
they were by a considerable outlay from the public funds, 
did not produce the desired result, but even increased the 
popular discontent throughout the country. The exertions 
of the government were therefore directed to obtain a majo- 
rity in the Hungarian Diet, to be convoked at the end of 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 75 

the year 1847, for the purpose of securing the co-operation of 
its adherents in passing such legislative enactments as might 
be required for the repression of the daily-increasing agitation 
and the fast approaching anarchy. The measure was well 
intended, but it had to encounter insuperable obstacles, in 
the divisions which existed amongst the Conservatives. This 
body was divided into two parties, of whom one believed 
that security could only be found in the preservation of old 
forms and institutions, whilst the other considered them no 
longer tenable, and proposed their gradual reform. The 
former party consisted chiefly of the old magnates, the offi- 
cials, and the land-owners ; the latter, of the younger men 
who had not attached themselves to the opposition. At the 
head of the latter party stood the Hungarian court chan- 
cellor, Count Appony. The aversion of the former party 
for the latter party was almost as great as that of the younger 
party for the opposition. Erom motives of loyalty to the 
throne, it refrained from every species of agitation, but it 
did not support the projects of the other party. The latter, 
for the present, was possessed of power, and endeavoured 
by its exercise to secure a majority in the approaching 
parliament, by advancing such persons only to offices, ho- 
nours, and situations, as could be depended upon for increas- 
ing the government majority, either by means of their own 
votes or those of their dependents. Many honourable claims 
and expectations were thereby injured, and the opposition 
seized the opportunity to damage the character of the govern- 
ment throughout the country, by charging them with the 
immoral use of corruption to attain their ends. The worst 
of the business was, that the party of the old adherents 
of the throne expressed themselves in this way, so that 
the others could not rely on them for support ; sl considera- 
tion, however, which did not shake the sanguine self-confi- 



76 GENESIS OF THE 

dence of the latter, or prevent them from preparing those 
plans of reform which they intended to lay before the Diet, 
and which were deficient in nothing but the means of 
insuring their success. * A year before the summoning of 
the Diet a new difficulty arose, in the death of the Pala- 
tine, the Archduke Joseph, who had filled the highest office 
in the state during half a century, and had earned for himself 
a rich fund of experience, and the respect of all parties. 
He was a sensible, prudent, and also a shrewd man ; his want 
of decision of character was the occasion, it is true, that 
many a stone was torn from the foundation of the con- 
stitution, but his prudence always made the attack recoil 
upon the heads of the assailants. With a speed hitherto 
unprecedented in Austria, his son, the Archduke Stephen, 
was nominated as the vicar of the palatine immediately 
after his decease, and the desire of the king was thus inti- 
mated that the nobles who had the power of selection might 
choose him for palatine. An opportunity was thus lost of 

* From the sketch of its programme (Appendix No. 1) the intentions 
of that conservative party with which the government at that time 
co-operated may be gathered. In the Austrian daily press it is fre- 
quently spoken of at present under the name of the "old conservatives," 
though their proper name, according to our terminology, would be the 
"young conservatives." The programme embraces the entire field of 
administration and legislation. It was to have been passed into law, 
and gradually put into force by the Estates assembled at the next Diet, 
and in common co-operation with the government. The ancient inge- 
nious Hungarian constitution of King Stephen, so full of years, yet 
so frill of wisdom, would thus, without being overthrown, have been 
adapted to the demands of the age and to the wants of the Austrian 
united monarchy. 

The sober mind and the youthful energy of the Archduke Stephen, 
the new palatine, seemed to have called him expressly to the execution 
of this great undertaking. In case of success, the name of Stephen, in 
like measure as, 800 years ago, it was inseparable from the foundation , 
so it would now have been inseparable from the completion of the Hun- 
garian constitution. Instead of this, however, that name, when it, at any 
future day, recalls the origin of the constitution, will equally awaken 
the recollection of its overthrow in bloodshed. 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA- 77 

having a previous understanding with the Archduke Ste- 
phen with respect to his willingness to carry out the projects 
of the Hungarian court chancellor, Count Appony. A 
difference in their sentiments soon became manifest, which 
was sedulously encouraged by the opponents of the new 
system, who surrounded the archduke, and consisted of men 
not only from the Conservative, but from the Opposition 
party. 

The young archduke was anxious to imitate the example 
of his father, and not attach himself to any party ; but for 
this purpose he needed the experience of his father, and the 
skill with which the latter was accustomed to use the 
balancing-pole, in order to maintain an equal degree of in- 
fluence between the contending parties : he thus fell unsus- 
pectingly into the arms of the numerous and steady oppo- 
nents of the government system. The unanimity with 
which he had been elected palatine, even by the counties 
most hostile to the government, was ominous, but neverthe- 
less was a subject of congratulation in Vienna. The journey 
which he made through the country in the time that inter- 
vened between his election and the convocation of the 
Diet, a few months afterwards, was a splendid triumph, 
and exercised a beneficial influence on the minds of the 
Croats, who were at that time but unfavourably disposed 
towards the Magyars. 

The Chancellor Appony and his young adherents expected 
to find in the youthful activity of the new palatine a 
source of powerful support, particularly for the preserva- 
tion of order in the Diet, and they indulged in the most 
sanguine expectations. At the same moment, also, the 
Opposition calculated with certainty on obtaining a victory. 
In both camps, therefore, preparations were made for the 
parliamentary campaign, with confidence as to the result. 



78 GENESIS OF THE 

But that section of the Conservatives which was outside the 
camp assumed a grave aspect, and appeared overpowered by 
a gloomy anticipation of the events that were to follow. In 
the middle of November, 1847, the eventful Diet opened 
its sittings at Presburg, and so early as January, 1848, the 
government saw the impossibility of improving the state of 
the country by means of its assistance, and contemplated its 
dissolution ; but the necessary preparations for so important 
a step had not yet been made when the events of March 
broke out.* 

The commotions in Transylvania were a copy of those in 
Hungary, relieved by some slight differences arising from the 
more limited extent of territory, the absence of wealth 
among the movement party, the greater degree of intelli- 
gence and more tenacious power of resistance which the Ger- 
man element in the character of the Saxon people furnished. 

In consequence of the ability, skill, and superior sagacity 
of Baron Josika, the court chancellor of Transylvania, sup- 

* As the imperial government is at present introducing extensive 
reforms in the crown-land of Hungary, conquered by force of arms, it 
might be of some interest to see which of these reforms the crown, toge- 
ther with the Estates, had, at the diet of 1847, by means of a mutual and 
peaceable understanding, endeavoured to accomplish. The programme of 
the government party shows to their full extent the plans of reform (in 
existence) before March. One diet, however, did not suffice to give effect 
to them. The reader will perceive from the " most gracious royal propo- 
sitions" of the 11th of November, 1847 (see No. 2, of the Appendix), 
which of them, as being of the greatest urgency, had been proposed for 
the consideration of the last diet at Presburg. The manner in which they 
were proposed itself exhibits an important innovation. The crown had 
in the previous diets confined itself to a general indication of those 
laws which were to be discussed, and concerning which they were 
to deliberate and to come to an understanding with the king. The 
Estates themselves had thus to draw up the first project of every law. On 
the occasion, however, in question, a complete project of law was laid 
before the diet, in order to shorten the proceedings and to give them a 
definite direction, a method which was beyond all doubt most practical, 
and moreover analogous to that already observed for a considerable time , 
by the legislative assemblies of other countries. 



KEVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 7£ 

ported by his numerous and active adherents, he succeeded 
in unexpectedly obtaining for the government a favourable - 
issue from the Transylvanian Diet, which closed its sit- 
tings in 1847. Disputes which had lasted for years about 
the appointment to offices, the completing of the Tran- 
sylvanian regiments, and other subjects, were arranged, not, 
however, without some sacrifice on the side of the government, 
but only of such rights as were merely nominal, and in practice 
had long been unproductive of any result. The first step 
was also taken in the way of settling the condition of the 
peasantry by passing an urbarial law, and in the way of an 
approach towards the central government, inasmuch as the 
Estates conferred upon its most distinguished German mem- 
bers the unexpected dignity of the Transylvanian incolate* 
or a right to establish their residence in the country. 

This favourable conduct of the Transylvanian parliament, 
unexpected as it was, had the effect of exalting the hopes of 
the young Hungarian party devoted to the government, and 
led them to expect a similar result at Presburg ; but the very 
reverse occurred, for the Hungarian movement party were 
able to seduce the Transylvanians from the course they had 
commenced, and force them along with them in their own 
movement. 

After Hungary and Transylvania, Bohemia was the coun- 
try where, from time immemorial, the existence of the assem-* 
bly of the Estates was dearest to the memory of the people. 
The recollection of the importance of these bodies before the 
eventful battle on the White Hill, near Prague, was still vivid, 
and gave occasion to regret that that importance had been 
destroyed, and that Bohemia was now dependent on the 
court officials of Vienna. A feeling of jealousy of the Czechs 
against the Austrians, and a wish to resuscitate the nation and 
the language of that people, had never been extinguished. 



80 GENESIS OF THE 

The forms of the old constitution of the Estates had 
"been retained in Bohemia more closely than elsewhere. 
The provincial officers of the Estates were always the per- 
sons who stood at the head of the provincial administration ; 
the first provincial officer, who was styled the " Oberstburg- 
graf," was the chief of the province, and the presidents of 
the courts of justice (courts of appeal and courts of trial) 
were necessarily provincial officers, and therefore members 
of 'the Estates. This semblance of former things, it is true, 
had lost its value, for the appointees to any situation, if they 
were not members of the Bohemian Estates, were imme- 
diately invested with the incolate and the necessary grade 
of nobility by the sovereign ; and this very circumstance 
caused the remembrance of the old privileges to be re- 
tained. The demand for taxes on the part of the king, 
and various other requisitions, were usually taken into 
consideration by the Estates in their annual diets, and 
these diets always closed with a perfectly amicable under- 
standing between the king and the Estates on the subject 
of the royal wishes. For a long period the Bohemian 
Estates had attached no value to such proceedings of the 
diet ; they were considered mere acts of form, and re- 
mained dormant for thirty years. A few years ago, how- 
ever, the united court chancery had the imprudence (in con- 
sequence of some delay in the proceedings of the diet, and 
the vote of taxes therewith connected) to compel the Estates 
to observe them, and thus furnished a powerful weapon 
against the government. The domestic funds apportioned 
to the Estates could be dispensed by that body, without 
the dictatorial superintendence of its chief, and even the 
crown itself had no control over these funds without the 
consent of the Estates ; and although, from the unimportance 
of the supplies, this privilege might appear of no great im- 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 81 

portance, it yet afforded the first opportunity for a decisive 
movement on the part of the Bohemian Estates. 

The necessity of a consultation with the Estates, to obtain 
their previous consent to certain plans of improvement and 
amelioration, seemed to Count Chotek, who was Oberst- 
burggraf in Bohemia, in consequence of his anxiety to do 
good, too slow a proceeding to ensure his compliance with the 
custom, and he therefore frequently took upon himself the res- 
ponsibility of anticipating the consent of the Diet, and dealing 
with the funds. The influence which Count Chotek enjoyed 
with the Emperor Francis may have been the reason why the 
Estates, during his government, assented in silence to such an 
interpretation of their sentiments. But when his credit did 
not stand in the way, they took courage to oppose such usurpa- 
tion. The favourable hearing which they experienced in 
Vienna caused them to take pleasure in entering into con- 
tests with their Oberstburggraf, and thus these became the 
order of the day. This was the first commencement of all 
those dissensions with the Estates in Bohemia, which had 
never been dreamt of till then. It is the character of every 
species of opposition, that it endeavours to extend its sphere 
of action. And hence it happened, that in addition to de- 
nying the authority of its chief, the Bohemian Estates began 
now to weigh the conduct of government ; at first only 
in matters where they thought their own privileges were 
affected, but afterwards in points which concerned the whole 
country as much as themselves individually. They raised their 
voices against the nomination of persons to fill certain offices 
in the government, which were restricted to members of the 
Estates, and in which persons were installed who, before their 
appointment, did not belong to that order. When, upon the 
resignation of Count Chotek, the governing vice-president, 
Count Salm, was nominated in his place, his appointment gave 

G 



82 GENESIS OF THE 

rise to loud complaints for the privileges of the Estates being 
slighted, by establishing in authority over them a person who 
had enjoyed no official situation in the country, and was not 
possessed of the legal qualification in property. And yet the 
precedent was not new ; for in the year 1811, Count Kolow- 
rath was, under similar personal peculiarities, nominated 
by the Emperor Francis to the same situation, and was 
recognized by the Bohemian Estates, without opposition, as 
their provisional chief. The government, on this occasion, 
gave way. A provincial official was persuaded to renounce 
his post, in order that it might be conferred on Count 
Salm. He then received from his brother a property in 
Bohemia, and thus became qualified, in the opinion of the 
Estates, to accept the post conferred upon him. After this 
victory the Bohemian Estates sought new causes of contention. 
They first took into consideration the question of their domes- 
tic fund. And here they found cause for violently opposing 
the views of the government upon an unimportant question. 
The expenses of some foundation-members of the military 
academy at Vienna, who were presented by the Estates them- 
selves, were charged to the domestic fund, whereas such 
expense had previously, very unjustly, fallen on the shoul- 
ders of the clergy. Although the question was restricted to 
the more correct apportionment of a charge which had long 
existed, and which was incurred for the sole advantage of 
the dependants of the Estates themselves, they nevertheless, 
in order to prevent the government from intermeddling with 
the domestic fund, refused to contest the point at the ex- 
pense of those funds, although they could well afford the 
means of so doing, and the appointments were taken posses- 
sion of by government. 

They now exerted themselves to obtain a still greater 
influence than formerly over the distribution and allot- 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 83 

ment of the direct taxes. In order to assert their claim 
to the sole right of levying taxes, their leaders in the 
Diet had recourse to the extraordinary plan of transfer- 
ring to the dominical (or socage) landowner a part of the 
taxes paid by the rustic (villein) landowner, with which 
plan was probably united the intention of securing the 
gratitude of the peasantry. The majority of voters were in 
*favour of the proposal of their leaders, without considering 
the consequences of the system of increased taxation, smug- 
gled in under the name of an alteration in the assessment, 
and were very disagreeably surprised at discovering that this 
alteration in the system of taxation, which seriously affected 
the socage landowner, was received by the peasant, to whom 
it secured a scarcely perceptible diminution of taxation, with 
the utmost indifference, and without the smallest indication 
of gratitude. The voting of the direct taxes, which was the 
duty of the Estates in the so-called Postulaten-Diets, although 
the amount of taxation remained unchanged, was considered 
hitherto as mere matter of form ; but now it was intended to 
have a practical meaning ; for the Bohemian Estates availed 
themselves of the opportunity afforded by the order which 
was issued by the united court chancery, that they should 
make regular parliamentary decrees, to connect their claims 
with the votes for taxes, and to defer the decree, as well as 
the levying of the taxes, till the moment when their claims 
should be recognized. 

Hence arose an active struggle with the government, 
which found it impossible to make the payment of taxes de- 
pend upon an agreement with the Estates, on many subjects 
which bore no relation whatever to the question of taxation. 
The president of the Estates, Count Salm, who, by the ap- 
pointment of the Archduke Stephen to the post of provincial 
chief in Bohemia, had received the character and title 

g2 



84 GENESIS OF THE 

of second governing president, was obliged to represent the 
government, and on this account became as much disliked as 
his predecessor, Count Chotek, had been. He had, however, 
far less opportunity than the latter to secure the respect and 
regard of the country, because he was not, like the Oberst- 
burggraf, the representative of the sovereign ; for the 
archduke stood above him in that capacity. And in 
addition, we must recollect that the latter, in his efforts to 
secure popularity, endeavoured as much as possible to avoid 
every unpleasant collision with the leaders of the Estates, and 
succeeded admirably in this object, by means of his intel- 
lectual parts, his lively disposition, his playful wit, and his 
agreeable exterior. 

The assemblies of the Bohemian Estates were the most dis- 
contented, after those of Hungary and Transylvania. A bad 
symptom displayed itself in the circumstance that the 
sovereign did not escape attacks, but was constantly re- 
minded of his coronation oath. This boldness towards an 
absolute monarch can be explained by the sympathy which 
many of the chiefs of the Bohemian opposition found among 
the higher circles at Vienna, and even among the influential 
friends of the throne, in consequence of which the whole 
matter was viewed in the mildest light, and considered a 
mere storm in a glass of water ; and the abusive speeches 
which were uttered against the imperial decrees opposed to 
the wishes of the people, were explained away by saying 
that they were directed against the courtiers, or the coun- 
cillors at the side of the emperor. Such a connivance 
of the higher circles with the Estates, evident as it was, 
naturally encouraged their discontent, and increased their 
aversion to the bureaucracy, as it was termed. To this 
last class, not only in Bohemia, but in the other provinces of 
the empire, all the blame of the good that was omitted, 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 85 

and the evil that was committed, was ascribed, but without 
justice, as the bureaucracy had no authority to alter 
the state machine or to change the system of govern- 
ment. But the aversion with which they were regarded 
was not wholly unfounded, because they had the imperti- 
nence to lay claim to universal knowledge, and frequently 
were harsh in the exercise of the power that was intrusted 
to them. But they were doubtless oftentimes irritated and 
vexed at the hatred which the Estates and the high aristo- 
cracy evinced towards them. 

"Whoever worked with zeal in a government office, even 
though by birth and social relationship he was a mem- 
ber of the higher orders, was regarded by his fellows as a 
bureaucrat, and it was a rule, particularly with that portion 
of the higher aristocracy who were called in derision "la 
creme" of society (because they raised themselves above 
their fellows as cream does above milk), to behave to the 
bureaucracy in a friendly and polite manner, only when they 
needed their assistance. And thus a system of reciprocal 
animosity was established, which led to continual an- 
noyance. 

Those who were not members of the aristocracy felt no 
sympathy for them, but rejoiced at their disagreements with 
the government, because they hoped, by the humiliation 
of the latter, to raise themselves to power. 

The foreign press (particularly that widely-circulated, but 
strictly-prohibited, journal, the Grenzboten) praised the 
heroic courage of the Bohemian Estates, but lamented that 
they entered into contests for their own individual privi- 
leges, and did not defend the general interests of the people. 
This censure fell upon a fruitful soil, for the Bohemian Estates 
soon enlarged the field of their complaints. In order to set 
about the recovery of their privileges, they established a com- 



86 GENESIS OF THE 

mission chosen from amongst themselves, who were to examine 
all documents in their archives which might serve to support 
their claims against the government. At the same time they 
brought under their revision transactions of the administra- 
tion which had no relation to the Estates as a body, but 
affected the country at large, or the kingdom in particular. 
By this means they usurped the attitude of " representatives 
of the people," a position for which they had never been 
designed, and for which, from their very elements and 
composition, they were wholly unfitted. Many plans were 
now brought forward, which, partly from their great im- 
portance (of which the proposers themselves were unaware), 
partly from the serious influence they might exercise on the 
credit of the state or on the money market, and partly on 
account of the impossibility of defraying the attendant 
expenses, were not supported by the officials who were 
called to take them into consideration. The rejection of 
any such project was the occasion of loud complaints against 
the detested bureaucracy, who were accused of fettering 
the good intentions of the king, and of bringing every spe- 
cies of calamity on the monarchy. And although such 
charges did uot lead to present blows, they paved the way to a 
revolution, by undermining all confidence in the intelligence, 
and all faith in the goodwill and power of the government, 
and established in its place that mistrust which brought 
all the mischief of the present time upon the empire. 

To render themselves completely the representatives of 
the Czech people, the Estates now applied themselves to 
fanning £he flame of popular independence, which had never 
been perfectly extinguished, but continued to burn faintly 
in the bosoms of the people. Those who spoke German 
much more fluently and more correctly than Bohemian 
assumed the character of genuine Slavonians; in the principal 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 87 

taverns and coffee-houses of Prague, where scarcely a tongue 
unacquainted with the German language ever tasted refresh- 
ment, the bills of fare were drawn up in Bohemian j invitations 
to parties were also issued in the same tongue, although they 
were not addressed to the humbler classes of society, among 
whom alone an ignorance of the German language could possi- 
bly exist ; and in the country towns, whose population con- 
sisted of Germans, the streets invariably received Bohemian 
names, if the chief magistrate happened to be a native. And 
thus squabbles about the language, to which the greater part 
of the people had never paid any attention, were called into 
life. As it had always been the custom to promulgate the 
laws and decrees in both languages, and as in the Czechish 
districts, the clergy, the schoolmasters, and public officials, 
always used the Bohemian language in their intercourse 
with the people, the result was, that, in spite of the linger- 
ing feeling of nationality, scarcely a trace of real animosity 
towards the Germans was to be found among the Czechs ; 
on the contrary, it had come to be a very general custom for 
Bohemian parents to send their children to friends in German 
districts, and to take charge of their children in return, in 
order that both parties might enjoy the opportunity of 
becoming acquainted with each other's language. The pre- 
sent division, therefore, on the subject of tongues and 
national feelings, did not arise from that portion of the 
Czech people who are ignorant of the German language, but 
rather it has been called into being by the upper classes, in 
order thereby to weaken the central administration, after 
the example which had been given in Hungary. After a 
silent battle had been fought in this way for many years, 
an open rupture took place, in the year 1847, between 
the government and the Bohemian Estates, which, as a 
forerunner of the events which subsequently took place 



88 GENESIS OF THE 

in March, 1848, deserves to be more particularly noticed 
here. 

For a long time the royal towns of Bohemia had decided that 
they were no longer subject to defray the heavy and constantly- 
increasing expenses of the existing criminal courts out of 
their own resources, and therefore they energetically urged 
the necessity of some relief. The justice of this demand was 
universally acknowledged, and the amount to be contributed 
by the different towns for the purpose was calculated at 
50,000 florins, annually. The government, to protect the 
state finances from a new outlay, proposed to the Bohe- 
mian Estates to charge this payment for the towns on 
the domestic fund of the State ; but the latter rejected 
the proposal, declaring that the domestic fund was not 
liable to this charge, relating, as it did, directly to the 
purposes of the State. In this they were quite right, as the 
government, in fact, admitted, the latter having undertaken, 
as a state charge, the support of the towns in defraying the 
expenses of the criminal courts. Here the matter would 
have been settled, if a desire to indemnify the finances for 
this new impost had not occasioned the unfortunate measure 
of making this unimportant addition to the direct taxes of 
Bohemia alone. The additional amount of taxation which 
was therefore imposed, and announced to the Bohemian Estates 
in the royal demand, was carried through the parliament 
first in the year 1845, and afterwards in 1846, not without 
opposition. The title of this new tax was not expressly 
declared, because it was generally customary to account to the 
Estates for the allotment or distribution of the taxes. 

Although, in the Diet of 1847, held for considering the 
estimates, a precisely similar sum was demanded for the 
year 1848, the Estates, nevertheless, considered themselves 
justified in asking the government by what authority the 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 89 

taxation, since the year 1845, had been increased by the 
sum of 50,000 florins. 

This demand suggested the reflection, that the first step was 
thereby made by the Estates towards controlling the govern- 
ment in granting the supplies. The government, therefore, 
adopted the usual course, and requested the Estates to allot 
and appoint the required taxes for the year 1848 in the 
same proportion as they had done for the two preceding 
years. The Estates refused obedience, and declared afterwards 
that they only consented on this occasion, by way of excep- 
tion to the general rule, to instruct their committee to grant 
taxes to the same amount as had been allowed up to the year 
1848, and this for the purpose of preventing injury which 
would accrue to the public service, if, acting on their sense 
of right, they should, on account of the existing differences, 
postpone the question of taxes till the end of the Diet. 
of which there was no immediate prospect. Thus the 
gauntlet was thrown down. The government was obliged 
to take it up, and engage in the contest, if it did not wish 
to see its position totally changed in relation to the Bohe- 
mian Estates, and afterwards in relation to all other Estates, 
whose privileges could be traced from an earlier origin, and 
were, in substance, identically the same. 

The entire amount of taxes demanded was thus imposed on 
the tax-payers by the chairman of the Estates and governing 
president, with the privity of the Corporation of the Estates, 
and measures were thus taken effectually to meet every 
refusal to pay the taxes. This caution appeared necessary, 
because on an occasion some years before, when, on account 
of a delay in the closing of the Diet, the proper taxes were 
assessed in the usual way through the oflice of the Estates be- 
fore the close of the Diet, some members of the Estates, of high 
rank, threatened to refuse payment, though they were then 



90 GENESIS OF THE 

the organs of the Estates, and had no scruple in making the 
safety of the public service to depend on a matter of form. 
But, in the mean time, no such demonstration was made on 
the present occasion. Advantage was taken of the decided 
conduct of the government in every possible manner to 
render it and the statesmen, who were considered as its 
authors, objects of aversion, in order still more to excite the 
national feeling and to prepare for the ensuing contest with 
the government when the Diet should assemble in the 
ensuing spring. The arsenal of the Estates was in the mean 
time properly prepared for this contest by the committee of 
the Estates, which, as already mentioned, was appointed to 
make a report of the documents embodying the rights to 
which the Estates were entitled. After two years' labour, this 
report was so voluminous that the Estates did not consider it 
proper that it should be laid in its fall extent before the 
throne, but that it should be preserved in the archives of 
the Estates for use upon fit and proper occasions, and only 
submitted the general effect of the same to the emperor in a 
report of the Estates, with a view of having some security 
for the maintenance of their old privileges, which had been 
set aside by the bureaucracy. 

It is beyond the limits of our task to enter upon a descrip- 
tion and critical examination of the claims of the Estates. Be 
it enough to mention that at the head of these claims, 
although the recollection of the privilege was certainly not 
very opportune, was placed the right to choose a king in case 
the ruling dynasty should become extinct, as also the demand 
that the imposition of taxes should be made dependent on 
the previous consent of the Estates, and that their advice 
should be taken on every law and regulation affecting the 
country. The attitude which the Bohemian Estates thus 
assumed with respect to the absolute Emperor of Austria, 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 91 

and the daring way in which they acted, might well betoken 
how sensible they were of their own strength — a strength 
which could only arise from their strict union with the 
Estates of the other Austrian provinces, and from a cer- 
tainty of obtaining support among the unprivileged classes 
of society. This community of purpose was, in fact, not un- 
known to the government, who were fully aware of the 
agreement which the directors of the movement of the 
Bohemian Estates had formed with those of Moravia, Lower 
Austria, and Hungary ; they were also aware of the efforts 
which they were making to cross over the gulph which 
yawned between them and the unprivileged classes on the 
bridge of their common national feeling. Notwithstanding 
all this, they remained tranquil spectators, in firm reliance 
on the so much vaunted attachment which the masses of the 
people were expected to display when the hour of danger 
should arrive. The government hoped, moreover, to avoid 
that critical hour by a compromise with the Estates. For 
this purpose a special department was opened in the United 
Court Chancery for the purpose of settling the relations of 
all the provincial Estates with the government, on the basis 
of right and of practical consistency, and to settle the prin- 
ciples of their regulation. The plan was a happy one, but 
it came too late, and failed in its intent, for the new de- 
partment in the court chancery had not yet given signs of 
life, when the events of March dealt a death-blow not only 
to it, but to the court chancery, and to all the ancient 
privileged Estates. 

"We may perhaps have wearied the patience of the reader 
by the details which we have given of the agitation in the 
Bohemian Estates, but we have done so, because it was the 
prototype of what occurred in the other provinces, where 
ancient privileged Estates existed, with some variation in 



92 GENESIS OF THE 

the degree of determination and obstinacy, in proportion to 
the power which they severally possessed. 

The Moravian Estates, nearly allied as they were with those 
of Bohemia, were their earliest and most zealous imitators. 
But the secession of the most influential and important man, 
who had placed himself at first at the head of the Opposition, 
but subsequently became an adherent of the government in 
Bohemia, where he was also a member of the Estates, in addi- 
tion to the great influence of the governor of the country 
(who was also chief of the Estates), gave the movement a very 
inoffensive character. 

In Styria there were some individual members of the 
Estates who felt themselves disposed to struggle against the 
government ; the majority, however, were too much disposed 
for peace to allow themselves to be forced by the others to a 
stronger manifestation of their feelings, and they knew, 
moreover, that they were not independent and influential 
enough to break with the government, particularly as they 
could not overlook, what so often occurs in mountainous 
countries, that the democracy was quite a match for the 
aristocracy, a result which had been in a great measure 
brought about by an agricultural society of long standing, 
chiefly composed of country people and tradesmen, which 
had extended its branches all over Styria, and was in 
unceasing confidential communication with the Archduke 
John. It could not, therefore, have escaped the observation 
of the Estates, that a contest with the government must be 
attended with great danger to themselves, since the demo- 
cracy is ever the enemy of privileged orders. They adhered, 
therefore, to the old path, and presented their wishes or their 
complaints in the old accustomed peaceable and respectful 
manner to the emperor. The Estates of Carinthia, and of 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 93 

the district above the river Enns, were circumstanced pre- 
cisely in a similar manner. 

These countries, although they too were in the possession 
of very ancient privileges, did not approve of entering into a 
contest with the crown for their assertion, being convinced 
that in such a struggle they would find no support. The 
Estates of Silesia entertained the same conviction. 

The corporations of the Estates in the other provinces 
(with the exception of Lower Austria, of which we shall say 
more hereafter) were created by the Emperor Erancis, after 
he had reconquered those countries, and were so constituted, 
that an opposition on their part against the government 
would have been without any basis of justice. In all 
these provinces, therefore, although they were in truth not 
strangers to discontent, and even entertained a desire to 
extend their own influence, and to effect some alterations in 
the system of government, they were entirely opposed to 
any violent movement. 

This was not the case, however, in Lower Austria, where 
the cry which went forth from the Estates to the landowners 
in the 17th century, " Subscribes Ferdinandule," still lived 
in the recollection of the inhabitants, and dissensions between 
the Estates and the government officials were the order of 
the day. It is true that these dissensions arose at first 
merely from certain orders issued from the circle-authori- 
ties in Lower Austria, or it might be from the court chan- 
cery; but the relation of the Estates towards the throne 
remained undisturbed. But as this relation had become the 
veiy source of dispute in Bohemia, and a member of the 
Bohemian Estates, who was also one of the highest order of 
the aristocracy, stated, upon his introduction into the Lower 
Austrian Assembly, his conviction that the privileges of the 



94 GENESIS OF THE 

Estates were as little acknowledged and respected in one 
place as in the other, this expression aroused their energies 
to demand their rights, and assert them even in Vienna.'' 
In addition to the ordinary assemblies of the Estates, meetings 
were held of members who agreed in political opinions, 
complaints against officials and against the crown were 
drawn up at length, extensive remedies were proposed, and 
addresses to the emperor were thereupon prepared, which 
deputations afterwards presented at the foot of the throne. 

Under the modest title of a plan to regulate the business 
of the Diet and the general assemblies of the Estates, a 
species of charter was prepared, which would have entirely 
changed the relation between the Estates and the throne. 
The failure or rejection of such plans and proposals gave 
occasion to very loud complaints of oppression against 
the bureaucracy, of inactivity or incapacity against the 

* The pamphlet, " Die Nieder Oesterreichischen Landstande und 
die Genesis" ("The Provincial Estates of Lower Austria, and the 
Genesis"), &c., which has been mentioned in the preface of the 
third edition, corrects (pp. 10 — 12) the above assertion. It assures us 
that the endeavours of the Estates of Lower Austria to dispel the apathy 
of the assemblies of the Estates, which had almost become proverbial, 
and to awaken them to constitutional activity, are traceable back beyond 
the year 1835. The attempts made since that year to rouse themselves 
up from that apathetic state had, for the greatest part, been without 
effect. The Estates of Lower Austria had not staggered forward out 
of their sleep before 1840, and the ten following years, when they had 
been aroused by those few of their members who, apparently slumbering', 
had neverthless been watchful. According to this, the endeavow°s of 
the Estates of Lower Austria to display once more their activity 
manifested itself in the last years of the reign of the Emperor Francis. 
Attempts were made, in the year ef his death. The real staggering 
forth did not, however, commence until after the year 184.0. It was 
exactly at that time that the Bohemian Estates, which had been 
amalgamated with the assembly of the Estates of Lower Austria, 
reproached the latter in the manner we have stated. As we did not 
enjoy the favour of belonging to the Estates of Lower Austria, we hope 
to be pardoned for not having been aware of their activity during their 
apparent slumber, and in consequence of which we referred its com- 
mencement to that moment when we saw them stagger forth. 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 95 

central government, and of hostile designs entertained by 
one or other members of the same. The tendency of every 
step was to obtain some degree of control over the direction 
of the finances, and a participation in the legislature, and to 
secure in important matters the same privileges as existed in 
Bohemia, with the exception of what had reference to their 
nationality; for on these points the German inhabitants of 
Lower Austria had no new rights to assert. But for this 
very reason, that there was no occasion to appeal to the 
feeling of nationality amongst those people, they failed in 
securing for their projects that source of strength which is 
to be found in the sympathy and assistance of the lower 
orders ; a resource, however, of which the Bohemians could 
always avail themselves. They were obliged, therefore, to 
seek other assistance. Accordingly they had recourse to 
the middle classes of society, with whom, on account of 
the circumstances in which the capital was placed, they 
had also formed a more intimate connection. Members of 
the Estates now took an active part in the various so- 
cieties established in Vienna-, amongst which, the Com- 
mercial and the Legal-and-Political Beading Society showed 
the greatest disposition for active operations in the political 
field. The commercial body, which had felt itself crippled in 
its speculations by the proper control which the administra- 
tion of finance exercised over the Lower Austrian National 
Bank, by counteracting various projects for dealing in its 
shares, was not slow on its part to blame and discredit the 
government ; men of letters and pretended literati, who 
formed a numerous class, and a multitude of teachers who 
were in the pay of the state, in different public institutions, 
poured forth their wrath at the fetters in which the press 
was held bound, and expressed their discontent that a 
general system of liberty was not established for learning and 



96 GENESIS OF THE 

teaching. The angry speeches of many eminent bankers, 
and also of some of the respected professors of the university of 
Vienna, produced a powerful impression, in the first place, 
upon the lower order of tradespeople and artizans, and in 
the second place, upon the students and, through their influ- 
ence, upon their parents, which had the effect of exciting 
mistrust in the government, breeding general discontent, 
and nourishing a gloomy conviction of the unavoidable 
necessity of a total change in the political system. Even 
the very officials themselves were not free from this conta- 
gion. In the casino of the nobles, in the reading club, on 
the exchange, in taverns and coffee-houses, in the courts and 
public offices, everywhere were heard loud expressions of 
censure and want of confidence in the government, uttered 
openly and without apprehension. 

Even in the very neighbourhood of the court were found 
men, who not only joined in expressing the same sentiments, 
but that in so noisy a manner, that the emperor, a short 
time before the events of March, found it necessary to 
admonish them on the subject. The discontented Poles, 
Hungarians, and Italians, who happened to be in Vienna, 
assisted with all their energies to increase the spirit of hostility 
against the government. 

The Lower Austrian Estates, moreover, found a strong 
host of allies ready to assist them in any endeavours to 
oppose the existing order of things, willing to stand by them 
in every effort to destroy, but by no means disposed to aid 
afterwards in their attempts to rebuild. 

Such was the aspect of affairs in the different parts of the 
Austrian empire, previous to March, 1848, and in this con- 
dition they might perhaps have continued to remain, if into 
the inflammable materials which had been thus collected 
together, the spark of a triumphant democracy in France 



BEVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 97 

had not suddenly and unexpectedly been thrown to excite a 
general conflagration. The news of this victory reached 
Vienna on the 29th February, 1848, by means of a courier to 
the state chancellor ; it was published on the 1st of March, and 
on the 13th of the same month its effect was already 
apparent. 

Before we pass to the events of March, we must request 
the indulgence of our readers for having subjected their 
patience to so severe a trial, by having so long dwelt upon 
the previous epoch. To many of them our sketch of the 
Austrian state machine, the account we have given of the 
Austrian government system, of the excesses of the pro- 
vincial Estates, &c., will have appeared wholly unnecessary, 
because we have related nothing new ; but whoever has 
not been placed in relations of official business to the 
different Austrian authorities, will find in our account of 
their divisions and commotions the key to the solution of 
many perplexing difficulties which happened during the 
days of March and the subsequent time. It is not our task 
to write a chronicle of the year 1848 ; we wish to inquire 
into the origin of that convulsion to which the whole form 
and constitution of Austria, as it existed previously to March, 
was obliged to succumb in its entirety, and in every indi- 
vidual part. For this purpose it seemed necessary to ex- 
amine the nature of the seed, and mark the first budding and 
gradual ripening of that fatal fruit, which, greedily and im- 
moderately enjoyed, has thrown old Austria into a paroxysm, 
from which no person can with certainty foresee her recovery, 
though we may in a manner express our ardent wishes that 
that prophecy may be truly fulfilled, which these five mys- 
terious letters, A, E, I, O, II, were intended to announce, 
" Austria erit in orbe ultima." 



H 



98 GENESIS OF THE 



CHAPTER III. 

THE BEGINNING OF THE MONTH OF MARCH, 1848. 

The morning of the 1st of March conveyed to the inha- 
bitants of Vienna, through the medium of the public papers, 
the news of the victory which the democrats of Paris had 
obtained over the citizen king, and the substitution of a 
republic for the monarchy. Heaven seemed willing to give 
notice to the inhabitants of Vienna of the calamity which 
this news portended to their city. At early dawn thick 
clouds enveloped the town ; towards four o'clock in the 
afternoon they were alarmed by a storm of thunder and 
lightning, — a rare occurrence at such a period of the year. 
The aspect of the physical seemed to resemble that of the 
moral world. 

The account of the occurrences in Paris on the 24th of 
February at first excited the utmost astonishment ; the conse- 
quences of the events which had taken place lay hid in dark- 
ness : as these became gradually displayed, there burst forth 
one of the most terrible political storms, which no resident 
in the previously quiet and happy imperial capital could 
have conceived possible ; popular rule and popular terrorism 
were predominant, and the traces of their destructive agency 
will long remain behind. 

The first impression produced by the convulsion n\JParis 
seemed to be the same on all classes of society, and on all 
parties, — that of astonishment at so rapid and unexpected a 
dethronement of the King of the French, who, in general 
opinion, was regarded as the most prudent, most shrewd, and 



REVOLUTION IX AUSTRIA. 99 

most experienced ruler of the age. One might have under- 
stood the possibility of the throne becoming vacant in 
France by the Assassination, but not by the expulsion "of 
King Louis Philippe. 

This feeling of surprise was soon succeeded by reflections, 
which had often before arisen, in contemplating what might 
possibly occur at the future decease of the first king of the 
house of Orleans, and these reflections were as various as dif- 
ferent political sentiments could render them. The friends of 
peace and order looked forward to the future with apprehen- 
sion, the leaders of the revolution, on the other hand, with 
hope. Fear ever produces inactivity, while hope prompts to 
action. Among the friends of order, therefore, a helpless inert- 
ness succeeded the first feelings of astonishment, whilst among 
the movement party, on the contrary, a prompt activity at 
once displayed itself in the Rhine provinces, and subsequently 
extended itself further. The democratic societies took ad- 
vantage of the fear which was once more awakened in the 
German governments, lest the newly-established French re- 
public might now wish to realize the desire they had evinced 
in 1840, to extend their frontier to the Rhine, in order to 
preach up the necessity of German unity and concord, and to 
maintain that this end could never be accomplished with the 
speed that circumstances required through the Frankfort 
Diet, which had failed for thirty years to produce union 
and strength in Germany, but must be attained by the 
hands of the German people themselves. An assembly of 
the people of Germany, in a house of self-elected representa- 
tives, without any interference of the princes, was announced 
as the only means of displaying the people's power of re- 
sistance, and everything was speedily prepared which could 
conduce to the development of this plan. The governments 
had not the power to oppose this popular movement., The 

H2 



100 GENESIS OF THE 

democratic unions in Vienna, which subsisted in spite of 
the so much boasted watchful and suspicious police, lent 
a diligent hand to the preparation of these measures in the 
imperial capital, though they were at first conducted in 
silence and with caution. The Austrian government was so 
full of a lamentable over-confidence in its security against 
internal attacks, that it only directed its attention to the 
danger which threatened it from Germany and Italy. Pre- 
parations were necessary to meet this danger. For this pur- 
pose the requisite pecuniary resources were to be got ready. 
A new loan was already projected, but it could only be em- 
ployed to supply the momentary want of money : measures 
were first to.be taken to establish a permanent uniformity be- 
tween the income and the expenditure of the state. And as 
a diminution of the latter was not possible, under existing 
circumstances, it was obviously essential to increase the 
former, which was impracticable without discovering new 
sources of revenue. Though the condition of the Austrian 
finances, at the commencement of the year 1848, was not 
such as to alarm competent judges, they were yet, according 
to public opinion, in a critical position. 

On this subject public opinion was misled partly by the 
general system of secrecy in state matters, partly by the 
imprudence of high personages, who, in order to justify the 
rejection of demands upon the state finances, which came 
before them, alleged their disorder by way of pretext, some- 
times even with an allusion to an approaching national 
bankruptcy. This imprudence afterwards bore bitter fruit, 
inasmuch as it increased and established a mistrust of the 
government, and a general discontent with its proceedings. 
The head of the finance department, Baron Kiibek, president 
of the Court Chamber, recognized the overpowering impor- 
tance of these circumstances. From his anxiety to reduce 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 101 

■within the compass of the strictest necessity the expen- 
diture of the state, in its most expensive branch, namely, 
the military establishment, he was engaged in perpetual 
conflict with the war department, which, on its side, being 
pressed by the urgent demands of the commander-in-chief of 
the Italian armies, laid claim to all the disposable funds to 
increase the army and establish it on a war footing. This 
army, as early as February, 1848, was increased to 85,000 
men, and was thus rendered, according to the judgment of 
experienced men, sufficiently strong to preserve order in the 
country. An attack from King Charles Albert, without a 
previous declaration of war, and in direct opposition to his 
assurances of friendly alliance, could not but appear to men 
of justice and honour, such as were then in the Austrian 
cabinet, to be a moral and political impossibility, more par- 
ticularly after the explanation given to the treaties of 1815 
by the European powers, with a view of acknowledging the 
bearings of those treaties upon their relations with Italy. 

The reproach of an ill-advised parsimony, which has been 
directed by some persons against the Austrian central govern- 
ment, on the ground of a supposed neglect of the Italian 
armies, and which found a vent in the columns of the Augs- 
burg Universal Gazette, particularly in their Italian corres- 
pondence, is therefore incorrect ; since the burdens already 
imposed on the Austrian finances, almost too heavy to be 
borne, the universal outcry against the pressure of the exist- 
ing taxes, which rendered their farther increase impossible, 
and the general mistrust in the condition of the finances, 
arising as already stated, and diligently encouraged by 
the enemies of the government, rendered it a duty for 
the statesmen of Austria, although they were as yet respon- 
sible to no parliament, but only to an absolute monarch 
and their own consciences, not to dip deeper into the 



102 GENESIS OF THE 

purses of the citizens than undoubted and unavoidable 
necessity demanded. But so earnest, particularly in the 
capital, was the anxiety of every one to blame and misrepre- 
sent every proceeding of the government, that the very same 
individuals who complained of financial difficulties, approach- 
ing bankruptcy, and oppressive taxation, actually censured the 
government for not establishing a larger and more powerful 
army in the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, Indeed, the cir- 
cumstances of this kingdom were a never-failing source of 
agitation. In the same moment one might hear voices com- 
plaining of the weakness and unseasonable mildness of the go- 
vernment towards its Italian subjects, which had continually 
spared and favoured them at the expense of the rest ; and 
again, voices, which ascribed the discontent in the Lombardo- 
Venetian provinces to the Austrian system of oppression, ex- 
tortion, and neglect. And thus all respect and confidence was 
systematically withdrawn from a government, whose love for 
its subjects, and untiring solicitude for their general welfare, 
and strict uprightness, shone forth in all its dealings, and 
which should only have been charged with an excess of cau- 
tion, and, as a necessary result, a languor of administration. 
The immediate consequences of this lamentable state of 
things upon the branch of government intrusted to his super- 
intendence, namely, the finances, did not escape the sharp ob- 
servation of Baron Kiibek. His position justified and required 
him to adopt some remedy. The publication of the state budget 
would have been sufficient at any other time to correct the 
opinion of the public ; but, in the excitement which then 
existed, it would have probably produced the very con- 
trary effect : since the abandonment of the perfect secrecy 
which was formerly observed so strictly, that in the statistical 
tables which were officially communicated to ' the heads of 
the several departments, no notice of the state debts was 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 103 

ever inserted, with the adoption of a system which made 
public those secrets, would have been considered as an 
attempt to deceive the public, and as a cunning artifice to 
obtain undeserved credit. 

He proposed, therefore, to require the Estates of all the 
provinces to send deputies to Vienna, that they might there 
receive the most complete explanation, supported by docu- 
ments, and might consider such ways and means of managing 
the finances, as might lead to a restoration of equality be- 
tween the income and expenditure of the state. This step 
might have proved of incalculable importance, and might 
have paved the way to a constitutional adjustment of 
the monarchy. The plan was not rejected by the emperor, 
but rather approved of. But when the details of the mea- 
sure were discussed, doubts and delays arose again in this 
instance, and thus it happened that the 13th of March arrived 
before a single step had been taken in the matter. But for 
this delay, the government might have opposed the threat- 
ened revolution with a greater degree of moral strength, 
for it could no longer be accused of closing its ear to the 
wishes of the Estates, who wished to play the part of repre- 
sentatives of the people, and the change from an absolute to 
a constitutional monarchy would have been less hasty and 
less destructive in its effects. For, after the victory which 
the doctrine of the people's sovereignty had so unexpectedly 
obtained in Paris on the 24th of February, the chiefs of 
the popular party in Germany were able to use their power 
to effect the overthrow of their German rulers. As the 
princes, in the year 1813, in order to strengthen their power 
against the Emperor of the French, had evoked the spirit 
of freedom in their people, so they deemed it advisable, in 
their fear of an approaching contest with the French republic 
in 1848, not to oppose with force the impetuous efforts of the 



104 GENESIS OF THE 

German people to obtain their independence. One glance 
at the events which occurred in Germany immediately after 
the February revolution in Paris will establish the truth. 

As early as the 29th of February, the ministry of Baden, 
at Carlsruhe, being hard-pressed by the demagogues, notified 
to the Chamber of Deputies that the ministry was prepared 
to bring forward measures for the establishment of complete 
freedom of the press, trial by jury, and the arming of the 
people. In the evening of that very day the citizens appeared 
under arms ! At Stuttgart, on the 2nd of March, a petition 
was signed in an assembly of the citizens,, and addressed to 
the king, requiring him to summon a German parliament, to 
establish the jury system, unfettered freedom of the press, 
the privilege of holding public meetings and debates, a legal 
equality of all religious denominations, equality of taxation, 
freedom of land tenure, earnest efforts to develope the com- 
mercial and political resources of Germany, and an arming of 
the people, — which petition produced the immediate convo- 
cation of the Estates, in order that suitable projects of law 
might be proposed for their consideration. Similar requests 
were made at the same time in the duchy of Nassau, and 
for the most part were granted. The Diet sitting at Frank- 
fort found itself compelled to declare, even so early as the 
3rd of March, that it should be lawful for every German 
state of the confederation to abolish the censorship and 
establish liberty of the press, under guarantees to secure, 
as far as possible, the other states, and indeed the entire 
confederation, against an abuse of this privilege. On the 9th 
of March, the colours, black, red, and gold, were adopted as 
the colours of the confederation. In Munich, King Louis, 
after a popular tumult, which lasted for many days, and a 
plundering of the arsenal, on the 4th of March, felt himself 
compelled, in a proclamation, dated March 6th, to convoke a 



REVOLUTION IX AUSTRIA. 105 

meeting of the Estates for the 1 6th of the same month (the 
lower chamber had been dissolved on March 3rd, and he 
revoked this dissolution), in order to submit to them projects 
of law of nearly a similar tendency, and at the same time 
the immediate swearing of the army to the constitution, and 
the abolition of the censorship in domestic and foreign 
matters, which had been postponed, was commanded. In 
Berlin the king declared, on the 7th of March, that the 
right of periodically assembling, which had hitherto been 
conferred only on the united committee of the provincial 
Estates, was transferred to the united Diet, and on the 
8th, that the censorship should be abolished and freedom of 
the press established ; which announcements, however, were 
not sufficient to prevent a popular assembly from meeting in 
the zoological gardens on the 1 3th of the same month, which 
proceeded to the palace, and, midst the insults of the sol- 
diery, shouted for liberty and freedom of the press, a sample 
of the serious events which wsro subsequently to occur. 

The King of Saxony was obliged, on the 6th of March, to 
consent to the immediate convocation of the Estates, and to 
the dismissal of his minister, " von Falkenstein," who was an 
object of aversion to the people. 

It does not fall within the limits of our task to describe 
the popular commotions which took place in all the provinces- 
of Germany about the same time. They were all formed 
after the same model. Some governments were fortunate 
enough to postpone the tumult, none could succeed in defeating* 
the movement. On the contrary, in Heidelberg, the doctrine 
of the sovereignty of the people obtained a triumph on the 5th 
of March, which was full of portentous results for the whole of 
Germany. There, on the above-mentioned day, a body con- 
sisting of fifty-one individuals, who had proposed themselves 
as representatives of the German people, came to the resolu- 



106 GENESIS OF THE 

tion, that since the Diet no longer possessed the confidence 
of the nation, a general assembly of trustworthy men from 
all the provinces of the German empire should meet together 
with all speed, to take immediate measures for a national 
representation, which should be adopted in all the depen- 
dencies of the country by popular election, according to the 
amount of the inhabitants. To make preliminary arrange- 
ments, a committee, consisting of seven of those present, was 
immediately appointed. In the course of a week this com- 
mittee published an invitation to all those who ever had 
been, or at that time might be, members of the Estates, or 
belonged to the legislative bodies in any of the countries of 
Germany, to meet in Frankfort-on-the-Main, on Thursday, 
March 30th, for the purpose of considering apian for the 
formation of a German national parliament, with the proviso 
that particular invitations should be forwarded to a certain 
number of other eminent men who possessed the confidence 
of the German people, but who had not previously been 
members of the Estates. 

The German governments were obliged in silent submis- 
sion to witness this bold movement, which asserted the 
sovereignty of the people ; but with regard to the Italian 
princes, the case was not much better. On March 5th, 
the constitution was proclaimed in Turin. On March 6th, 
the King of Naples, who had already given a constitution to 
his own subjects, which, however, found no approval in 
Sicily, convoked the Sicilian parliament to meet on the 23rd 
of March, in Palermo, in order to adapt to the existing state 
of things the constitution of the year 1812. 

On March 7th, the Pope had to excuse himself to the Eoman 
people, on the ground that in the States of the Church a 
constitution could not be prepared so speedily as in other 
kingdoms, and sought to appease the excited populace with 



DEVOLUTION IN AUSTKIA. 107 

an assurance that lie would be able to satisfy them in a few 
days. 

And thus we see, that no sooner was the throne over- 
turned in France, than the princes of Germany and Italy 
became at once subject to the will of their people ! 

Thus, totally destitute as the kingdoms of western Europe 
seemed to be of all power of resistance against the force of 
democracy, it became evident that even in the Austrian 
monarchy the feelings of all those parties who were averse 
to the existing form of government, who were dissatisfied 
with the action of the state machine, and were excited by 
a desire for reform, could not long remain inactive. The 
moment for commencing the movement must have ap- 
peared so favourable to the reformers in Austria, that they 
could scarcely expect a more advantageous one to occur, 
since the embarrassment of the government in Italy, in con- 
sequence of the national hatred which was excited and sup- 
ported from abroad ; in Hungary, in consequence of the 
increasing arrogance of the Magyars ; in Bohemia, in conse- 
quence of the open collision with the Estates ; in Lower Austria, 
in consequence of a similar division, which was every day 
apprehended ; the condition of the finances, which rendered 
a still deeper plunge into the pockets of the citizens un- 
avoidable, and the feelings of discontent and distrust of the 
government, which were now loudly expressed in the higher 
and middle classes of society, encouraged the hope that a 
resistance on the part of the government, which even in 
Paris, under circumstances of infinitely less difficulty, King 
Louis Philippe, who was considered a prudent and resolute 
man, had not been able to carry into effect, and which German 
princes had never attempted to undertake, would not be 
made in Yienna against the movement party, or at least was 
not much to be anticipated. 



108 GENESIS OF THE 

Renewed activity was now observable in all the corpora- 
rations, unions, and clubs, and even among private indivi- 
duals, and wishes which were formerly expressed only in secret, 
were now openly announced. In the first place, the voice of 
intelligence, as it is termed, became loud ; it had com- 
plained, for many years, of the enchainment of the mind, 
which resulted from the rules of the censorship, and from the 
manner of their administration, and had been encouraged to 
expect a reform in that objectionable system. This measure 
of reform, which had been so ardently expected, commenced 
on the 1st of February, 1848, but produced, upon those 
whose hopes had been thereby excited, a perfect astonish- 
ment ; since they recognized in these measures of reform 
rather a stricter superintendence over the press than any 
favour conferred upon it. Soon after the commencement of 
the new censorship regulations, the principal booksellers in 
Vienna presented a petition to the emperor, for the abolition 
of the censorship grievance, admirably drawn up in an 
original tone, in the style of the Lord's Prayer, and ad- 
dressed to him in the second person (but not written in verse), 
and immediately afterwards a report was circulated that 
several book establishments were about to close for want 
of means, if immediate help was not extended to them, 
and thus the sources of bad feeling were increased amongst 
the educated classes. 

The Trades Union of Lower Austria on the 6th of March, 
in one of its ordinary monthly meetings, at which the 
Archduke Francis Charles, and the minister, Count Kolow- 
rath, were present, voted an address to the emperor, in which, 
whilst they noticed the astonishing events which had oc- 
curred in the west of Europe, they set forth the deep wound 
given to public credit, the cessation of all trade, and the 
magnitude of the impending danger ; and they further de- 



REVOLUTION IX AUSTRIA. 109 

clared that nothing but a strong and cordial union of the 
government with the Estates and the citizens, a strong and 
cordial union of Austria with the interests of the entire Ger- 
man fatherland, coupled with perfect sincerity, could win 
back that old national confidence which had so often been 
put to the test ; and they added an assurance that every 
member of the union was ready to sacrifice his wealth and 
his life for the hereditary imperial house, in the conviction 
that the emperor would adopt the wisest and best means to 
avert the impending danger. In the composition of this ad- 
dress, in spite of the appended and parenthetical vows of self- 
devotion, one could plainly read a wish to effect a radical 
change in the government ; for such declarations were by no 
means called for, inasmuch as the French republic, which 
had been re-established, gave not the slightest occasion to 
suspect its intention of threatening other states, and it was 
little in accordance with the purpose and position of the 
Lower Austrian Trades Union to step forth as a prophet 
and counsellor in the field of politics. It was therefore clear 
that they were glad, under pretence of sincere devotion to 
the imperial dynasty, to seize the opportunity of passing a 
vote of distrust of the government, in the presence of two 
permanent members of the state conference, one of whom 
was the presumptive heir to the throne, and by the acclama- 
tion with which it was received, to make the first attempt 
at a demonstration. The thanks which the archduke re- 
turned in the assembly, amidst great applause, in an extem- 
pore speech, proved that this attempt was successful ; for he, 
in his goodness of heart, suspecting no evil, was overcome 
by the assurance that they were willing to risk life and 
property in the defence of the imperial house. 

The courage of the reformers now increased. A few days 
after this prelude, men of all classes ascended the stage, and 



110 GENESIS OF THE 

assisted in thousands in completing a petition proposed by 
the members of the university of Vienna, and the Legal and 
Political reading club, in which their real objects were more 
clearly and minutely detailed. In the commencement it 
stated the desire, which, for many years, every true patriot 
had felt, and the necessity, so often adverted to in words and 
speech, of beholding the glorious and mighty land of Austria 
marching onward in the path of peaceable, but substantial, 
improvement; then followed the remark, that the late 
events in the west of Europe rendered it impossible to reject 
or postpone these demands without endangering the peace 
of the world, the credit of the state, and the security of pro- 
perty and right in every kingdom. The course which it then 
behoved Germany to pursue was next pointed out, in order 
to preserve her against every disaster, and to secure her 
support and strength at home and abroad, in the firm con- 
viction that Austria, whose rulers had filled the German 
throne for centuries, could only find real security in a firm 
union with German interests and German politics. The 
petitioners then averred their enduring affection and attach- 
ment to the high imperial house, as Austrian citizens, and 
they subjoined, in the discharge of a holy duty, an open and 
plain exposition of the measures which they considered to 
be alone calculated to impart new strength and vigour to 
the government and the empire at large, in the fearful cir- 
cumstances of the age. 

These measures were : — 

u The immediate publication of all matters relating to the 
administration of the state household. 

u The periodical convocation of a united assembly of the 
Estates of all the provinces of the monarchy, representing 
all classes and interests of the people, with the right of 
assenting to the taxes, and of controlling the financial 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. Ill 

department, and likewise of taking part in the legisla- 
tion. 

* The establishment of a legal status for the press by the 
introduction of a restriction law ; the enactment of a funda- 
mental law of publicity in the administration of justice, and 
in all government proceedings ; the concession of a municipal 
and commercial charter, adapted to the times ; and as a basis 
for the same, the representation of the agricultural, indus- 
trial, commercial, and educated classes, which were imper- 
fectly or not at all represented in the assembly of the Estates." 
This petition, having in view a radical change in the inter- 
nal organization of the whole monarchy, was not addressed 
to the emperor, but to the provincial Estates of one of the 
smallest provinces of the empire, namely, the Archduchy of 
Austria below the Enns, with the request that they, as the 
constitutional organ to meet the wants of the people, would 
in their next assembly take the proposed measures into 
consideration, and lay before the throne a proper plan for 
their immediate execution; a most remarkable proceeding, 
since it must be observed that the Estates, in their existing 
condition, could not express the complete sentiments of the 
country. It is evident, therefore, that a few individuals in 
Yienna, who were only competent to express their own 
separate views, and to represent their own individual inte- 
rests, elected themselves without any authority to be the repre- 
sentatives of the whole Austrian population, and became the 
bearers of a petition which was destitute of whatever value 
it might have been entitled to, if it had emanated from the 
Corporation of the Estates, which body they roundly declared 
never to have been the complete representatives of the 
province of Lower Austria, and never to have possessed any 
authority to submit to the emperor a plan for changing the 
whole system of government throughout the monarchy. 



112 GENESIS OF THE 

The connection of the interests of the reigning dynasty with 
the proposal to divide the government between the sovereign 
and the people, presented at this moment, when in France 
the ruling family had been driven out by the people, the 
appearance of a threat, because there was nothing in the po- 
litical circumstances of Europe to expose the imperial family 
of Austria to the apprehension of such a danger. We have 
already seen that the Trades Union had adopted the same 
means for exciting terror ; their object was, no doubt, to 
frighten the royal family and their advisers. During the 
whole of the Austrian revolution, its originators and ad- 
herents, over and over again, had recourse to this plan, with 
dexterity and success, to cripple the power of the govern- 
ment. 

It must be ascribed to the fears of the government that 
the proceedings of the Trades Union on the 6th of March, 
instead of being met by an order to dissolve or close the 
union, were responded to by an expression of thanks from 
the heir to the throne, and that the address of the Austrian 
citizens in Vienna was allowed in many places to be exposed 
for the collection of signatures up to the 12th of March with- 
out the interference of the Austrian police, who were accused 
over all Europe of possessing Argus' eyes and vulture's claws. 
Amongst the many persons who assisted to compile this peti- 
tion, one individual particularly demands attention, who has 
distinctly declared his concurrence with the same, appended his 
whole name, style, and title thereto, John, Baron of Deresenyi, 
royal and imperial court councillor and referendary of the do- 
mains in the General Court Chamber. This declaration was, 
doubtless, intended to establish, that a royal official by no 
means violates his duty or his oath in supporting, from mo- 
tives of individual conviction, such a petition, deeming it con- 
sistent with the true and real interests of the people. Such a 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 113 

declaration was calculated to exercise a great influence upon 
the whole body of officials, as the man from whom it emanated 
was the sou of one who enjoyed high and powerful patro- 
nage, the president of a court office, who had retired in 1840. 
This may serve as a proof of the observation we have already 
made, that moral discipline had entirely disappeared amongst 
the officers of the state. 

To the two above-mentioned demands for a reform of the 
government, both of which were without any legal autho- 
rity, succeeded a third, on the 12th of March, which was 
equally illegal, and came from the students of Vienna. 
These young people, whose pursuit should have been study, 
allowed themselves to say to the emperor that, according to 
their conviction, freedom consisted in strongly uniting 
prince and people, in making them capable of great deeds, 
and of bearing great trials with fortitude and valour, and that, 
therefore, the students of Vienna conceived they discharged 
a, sacred duty in declaring their conviction, that the assertion of 
this freedom was a compulsory obligation in the present cri- 
tical situation of affairs, on which account they implored the 
emperor to grant freedom of the press and freedom of 
speech, for the establishment of mutual confidence and agree- 
ment between prince and people, a change in the system of 
popular instruction, and above all, the introduction of free- 
dom in teaching and learning ; an establishment of equality 
between the members of all religious creeds, publicity and 
viva voce management of all legal proceedings ; and that 
these improvements should be especially introduced into such 
portions of the kingdom as belonged to the German con- 
federation. This petition was brought forward on March 
11th, and on the following day (Sunday) it was agreed to in 
the hall of the university (afterwards the infamous Aula), 
with the co-operation of many members of the Polytechnic 

I 



114 GENESIS OF THE 

Institution, at a very boisterous meeting. The advice offered 
by the director of the political law class produced no effect, 
for the heads of the young people had been, for a long time 
previously, no doubt intentionally, too much excited by 
some of the professors to attend to the dictates of prudence 
and reason, when other voices demanded the removal of the 
Austrian government. 

When we consider the nature of the demands that were 
made by the students, involving questions of the most com- 
plicated kind, on which the best instructed and most expe- 
rienced statesmen of all nations are at variance, and which 
the former considered as settled, we cannot doubt that the 
presumption and daring of these inexperienced persons arose 
from their youth, and that they were led astray by an 
excusable desire " jurare in verba magistri /' so that these 
magistri, of whose hostile dispositions towards the govern- 
ment we have already spoken, must be considered the real 
authors of this petition. In fact, the authority of the 
university, instead of opposing these proceedings on March 
11th, and of supporting the interference of the director on 
the 12th, rather chose to try a plan of arrangement by pro- 
mising the excited youths to forward the petition on the 
same day to the emperor through a deputation. In this 
deputation the same professor took part who, in the year 
1846, chose the seizure of the territory of Cracow as a sub- 
ject of discussion, to qualify a candidate for a doctor's legal 
degree, and who endeavoured to screen this offence under the 
pretence of good intentions, when he was called to account 
for his conduct. 

And this deputation, which was called together by boyish 
arrogance, notwithstanding that on other occasions deputa- 
tions even of the Estates had been refused admittance, when 
the emperor disapproved of the object they had in view, re- 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 115 

ceived an audience of the absolute emperor in tlie evening of 
the very same day, a most unusual time to enjoy such an 
honour. "Was not this a proof that the powers of absolu- 
tism were broken by faction, and that the revolution was 
triumphant ? What remained but to circulate the news of 
this triumph in Vienna ] This soon occurred ; but before we 
consider what occurred on those remarkable days, the 13th, 
14th, and 15th of March, we must take a glance at the 
effects which the popular victory in Paris had produced in 
some other parts of the empire. 

We will first direct our attention to Bohemia, where the 
Estates were preparing themselves for an obstinate struggle 
in the next Diet, for the re-establishment of their old 
privileges. Shortly before the month of March, the Bohe- 
mians, in pursuance of the terms of their constitution, had 
received an oberstburggraf as their provincial chief, in the per- 
son of Count Budolf Stadion, who had been governor of Mo- 
ravian Silesia. In Moravia he had had the good success to 
overcome the opposition party in the assembly of the Estates. 
A. similar advantage was expected from him in Bohemia, as 
an accommodation of the dispute about the taxes was an 
object of the greatest anxiety on the part of the central 
government. 

The minds of the people in Prague were much agitated 
by two causes \ the Estates and their adherents were excited 
by the struggle in which they were engaged to establish 
their claims, and the other classes by the jealousy that 
existed between the Czechs and the Germans. 

For a very long time, meetings of the partisans of 
the Czechs had been held in a favourite hotel, called 
" Wenzelsbad," the members of which evinced their attach- 
ment to their party by the custom of only speaking 
the Bohemian language at these meetings. Such was 

I 2 



116 GENESIS OF THE 

also the practice in many other hotels in Prague, whose 
proprietors, without possessing much education themselves, 
in order to further the projects of Czechish literati and 
officials who resorted thither, endeavoured to prove their 
national predilections by the practical measures they adopted, 
of furnishing no refreshments to their guests which were 
not called for in the Bohemian language. The proprietor 
of the house, the notorious Faster, obtained by this means 
the character of a Czechish patriot. As these meetings 
had neither the appearance of a club, nor were the result 
of any political object, but seemed to be established to 
encourage a love for the Bohemian language, literature, and 
nationality, they were not interfered with by the authorities. 
But after the news of the proceedings at Paris, their origi- 
nal object either changed altogether, or the inoffensive veil 
in which it had been enveloped was thrown aside. The 
effect of those proceedings in Prague was alarming. The first 
expression of feeling which it called forth showed the 
opinion which was there entertained of the Austrian go- 
vernment. It was evinced by a run on the branch estab- 
lishments of the National Bank, to procure payment of the 
notes of the Central Bank, which bore three per cent, in- 
terest ; which was, without doubt, a silent but unequivocal 
vote of distrust. 

Many members of the Bohemian Estates resolved in a 
private meeting to endeavour to procure the convocation of 
an extraordinary Diet by the oberstburggraf, in order to 
demand timely concessions from the emperor, amid pro- 
testations of the most loyal intentions. A report was soon 
circulated that a meeting of the citizens was to be held in 
the above-mentioned hotel of the "Wenzelsbad, to prepare an 
address to the government, on the necessities of the time. 
Anonymous invitations to attend at the hotel on the 11th 



REVOLUTION IX AUSTRIA. 117 

of March, in the evening, which were circulated through the 
town, reduced these reports to a certainty. At six o'clock 
in the evening of the appointed day, every room in the 
Wenzelsbad was filled with guests of the better classes, 
amongst whom the most prominent members of the Bohe- 
mian Trades Union appeared in the most significant manner. 
The doors were closed against the people and the mere 
youths, who attended in crowds. 

The hotel -keeper, Faster, had the honour of appearing as 
the spokesman, or as he may be rather designated, on account 
of his impudence, natural eloquence, and clear-toned voice, 
the herald of the general sentiments of the assembly. Amid 
repeated cheers, he read aloud in the Bohemian language, 
a statement of the following demands, to be embodied in a 
petition to the throne. Equality in a national point of view 
between Germans and Bohemians, in schools, courts of justice, 
and before all the authorities, as well as with regard to the 
appointment of officials who could speak both languages. 
A united representation of the Estates of Bohemia, Moravia, 
and Silesia, the place of meeting to be Briinn and Prague 
alternately, in which the towns and provinces should be 
represented. A free communal constitution, with inde- 
pendent administration of their funds, and election of the 
town magistrates and communal officers. Equality of all 
religions. Independence of the courts of justice of the district- 
Publicity and viva voce proceedings in the same. Complete 
freeedom of the press, under mere restrictive regulations 
against the abuse thereof. A responsible central govern- 
ment. Abolition of feudal burdens and of privileged 
court a Abolition of the robot.* Abolition of the tax upon 

* The " Robot " was a customary labour-rent, in payment of which the 
peasants worked for their lords a certain number of days in the year, 
according to the extent of the peasant-lands which they held and culti- 
vated for themselves. — Ed. 



118 GENESIS OF THE 

articles of consumption. Alteration of the stamp and tax 
laws. Universal liability to military service. Recruiting 
by ballot. Four years' military service. Security of per- 
sonal liberty. ~No imprisonment but by virtue of a judicial 
sentence. These demands were to be prepared by a com- 
mittee; and drawn up in the form of an address. 

The motion of the hotel-keeper was supported, seconded, 
and translated into German by a person holding an in- 
fluential office in the province. His name was Trojan, and 
he was also one of the most active members of the Bohemian 
Trades Union. It was adopted by acclamation. They pro- 
ceeded immediately to elect the members of the committee, 
upon whom the preparation of the address within eight days 
was imposed as a duty, in order that the same might be for- 
warded with a deputation to Vienna. The demands of this 
petition had a two-fold object, the alteration of the absolute 
into a representative system of government, and at the same 
time, the separation of Bohemia and her crown lands in mat- 
ters of administration from the other parts of the monarchy. 
That such proposals should have been made in such a manner 
to the uncontrolled ruler of Austria appears to us a proof that 
the revolution in Prague, as well as in Vienna, previous to 
its formal introduction into the palace (on the 13th of 
March), was already virtually in operation. Even the people 
themselves in Prague appeared to be of the same opinion, 
for in the year 1849, the day appointed to be celebrated, as 
the anniversary of their triumph in the previous year, was 
not the 13th nor the 15th, but the 11th of March. 

The Hungarian Diet assembled at Presburg took advan- 
tage at once of the imperious attitude which the people had 
assumed towards their rulers, upon the overthrow of royalty 
in Paris, in order to declare openly and decidedly their revo- 
lutionary tendencies. As early as the 3rd of March, when 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 119 

allusion was made by a deputy to the want of confidence in 
the notes of the Austrian National Bank, which prevailed in 
Hungary, the result of an intention to bring them into dis- 
credit, Kossuth moved the Estates, interrupting the order of 
the day, that a committee should be appointed to advise the 
king on the measures demanded by the exigencies of the 
time. The motion was unanimously carried. A Hungarian 
councillor of state and magnate, who, before the sitting of 
the Diet, had with difficulty carried his election as deputy, 
with the declared intention of putting down the agitator 
Kossuth in the assembly, regardless of his resolution, sup- 
ported the motion with the greatest zeal, after a most violent 
attack upon the government. The warning of Kossuth 
not to lend the assistance of Hungary, as in the first 
struggle against the French revolution in 1790, without 
demanding guarantees for the future welfare of Hungary, 
was received with general approval. 

On the same day the nature of the representation to be 
made to the king was debated first in the circular, and 
immediately afterwards in the formal sitting of the Estates. 
It set out with a charge that the central government had 
hitherto not pursued a constitutional course, and consequently, 
could not be in accordance with the independence of the na- 
tional government or with its constitutional existence. This 
course had hitherto only prevented the development of the 
Hungarian constitution, but now it was evident tha,t if it were 
continued, and the state government should not be brought 
into unison with the latter, the most dreadful consequences 
might result to the throne, to the monarchy, which was 
united to Hungary by the pragmatic sanction, and to the 
country at large. The reforms in the administration of the 
home department, and the duty of the Diet in relation 
thereto, were afterwards set forth ; but a conviction was at 



120 GENESIS OF THE 

the same time expressed that the constitutional life of Hun- 
gary could only be maintained under a real representative 
system, and that her substantial interests demanded a basis of 
freedom for their support ; that further, the system of defence 
needed a radical change, and that the direction of the 
accounts and the responsible management of the Hungarian 
revenue by the Diet could no longer be refused. As it 
would be necessary, therefore, to come to an arrangement 
with the hereditary provinces, the Hungarian Estates were 
ready to make an advance for that purpose, paying regard, 
however, to their own independent national rights and 
interests, and they were convinced that the laws necessary 
to support the constitutional existence, as well as the intel- 
lectual and substantial welfare of the nation, could be set 
in rigorous operation only by the establishment of a national 
government, free from every foreign influence, which should, 
in accordance with the constitutional doctrine, be respon- 
sible to and represent a majority of the people. On this 
account the Estates ought to consider a complete change of 
the present system of government by boards, for a responsible 
Hungarian ministry, as the chief condition of, and important 
guarantee for, all reforms which they were resolved to 
accomplish in the present Diet, with the support and 
concurrence of the throne. But as this end was not 
to be obtained without some disturbance of tranquillity, 
and symptoms of disturbance were already observable in 
other provinces of the monarchy, which were united with 
Hungary by the pragmatic sanction, and these symptoms 
awakened the greatest apprehension, on account of the unfor- 
seen occurrence of recent events in foreign parts, the Hungarian 
Estates were convinced that the surest protection against all 
possible misunderstanding and the firmest support of the 
throne and reigning family would be provided by the throne's 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 121 

resolving to surround itself with constitutional institutions, in 
all its important relations, in conformity with the demands 
of the age. These demands, which contemplated an utter 
change in the construction of the state edifice, were 
mingled with allusions to measures already in readiness, and 
with assurances of unshaken loyalty, these last being com- 
pliments invariably appended to petitions of the people. 
The Board of Magnates, on receiving the resolution of the 
Estates, at the proposal of the presiding Judex Curiae, had 
resolved to postpone the consideration of the question till the 
return of the Palatine, who was then in Vienna ; and when 
afterwards the question was resumed, on the 14th of March., 
they wanted courage and resolution to oppose such an 
address, although many of the magnates, particularly those 
who belonged to the Hungarian crown provinces, recognized 
therein the seed of those calamities which subsequently 
spread through the land, though the terror which the 
galleries exercised over the rest of the Diet tied their 
tongues. 

"With this adoption of Kossuth's motion in both assemblies, 
the course of the revolution in Presburg began. The ring- 
leaders stretched forth the hands of brotherhood to their 
adherents in Vienna, and excited their courage by publicly 
promising effective assistance in case of need. Hungarian 
agents, who were joined by Italians, Poles, and G-ermans, 
inflamed the heads of the Viennese by speeches and the 
distribution of money, and excited them to action on the 
appointed day. 

All these commotions might surely have been sufficient to 
point out to the government the danger that threatened on the 
approaching meeting of the Estates of Lower Austria, but more 
direct evidence was added. In the beginning of March an 
anonymous notice was appended to the door of the house in 



122 GENESIS OF THE 

which, the chief court of justice held its sittings, iu which the 
proclamation of the constitution was announced for the mid- 
dle of the month. Numerous anonymous letters, filled with 
threats and warnings, were forwarded to the chancellor of 
state, and a person filling one of the highest offices in the 
imperial palace received intimation that there were people 
working for the establishment of a constitution. 

Ladies in the circles of the higher society, whose houses were 
situated in the neighbourhood of the Diet, gave utterance 
to their fears about the approaching assembly of the Estates, 
others were advised by a young physician to prepare for 
probable disturbances about the middle of March. 

On the evening of the 13th, a state official, of high stand- 
ing, directed the attention of Prince Metternich to the 
danger which threatened him personally. Several members 
of a foreign embassy came, without invitation, to the 
residence of the diplomatist, who resided opposite the 
assembly-house, in order to have an opportunity of observing 
from the windows of his residence the nature of a Vienna 
4meute. The president of the government of Lower Austria, 
who had heard the reports of an approaching outbreak of a 
plot in Vienna on the 12th of March, held a consultation with 
the authorities, convened for the preservation of peace and 
order^ as to the nature of the measures to be adopted, but 
he received the most positive assurances from the chief of 
these authorities, that nothing was to be feared, and that 
precautionary measures were unnecessary. It must appear 
strange that the police of Vienna, whom no one can accuse 
of blindness or inactivity in cases of political disturbance, 
made no preparations to prevent the threatened outbreak of 
the revolution on the 13th of March. We believe that the 
solution of this mystery is easily found in the description 
we have already given our readers of the mechanism of the 



.REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 123 

Austrian government, in the want of independent power in 
her organs, in their mistaking the effectiveness of the exag- 
gerated popularity of the government, in their unwillingness 
to appear afraid, and their aversion to forsake their usual 
course of conduct. They were unwilling, by unusual pre- 
ventive measures, to encourage the idea that it was possible 
to attempt a revolution in the capital, and they were content 
with hoping that the announced demonstrations would 
dwindle to a mere mob gathering before the assembly-house, 
and to a cheer for some of the liberal members of the Es- 
tates ; and that the street excesses which might follow could 
be easily suppressed by the ordinary means which were always 
in readiness. This opinion was strengthened by the conduct 
of the Estates of Lower Austria, for the provincal marshal, 
the president of that body, who was appointed by the empe- 
ror without their nomination, and enjoyed the perfect confi- 
dence of the government and their court, considered no other 
precaution necessary beyond proposing that the members 
should come to the assembly, not arrayed in their state 
robes, as was customary, but dressed as citizens, without 
display, in order not to attract the attention of the people.* 

* The pamphlet entitled " Die Nieder Oesterreischischen Landstande 
und die Genesis, etc./' reported to be published under the auspices of 
some of the members of the Estates of Lower Austria before March, 
expresses its surprise at the total neglect of preventive measures, and 
remarks, at page 24, as follows: "We shall not give credit to the 
rumour, that the government, in allowing, after a protracted discussion, 
the assembly of the Estates to be held, had secretly no other object in 
view than to avail itself of an opportunity for a coup d'etat, by seizing 
the ringleaders of the movement amongst the Estates, and that for this 
purpose even the warrants had been issued." 

The allusion to this rumour, which never became public, and proba- 
bly merely circulated among the partisans of the Estates in the shape 
of vague apprehensions, induces me to observe how little the govern- 
ment before the 13th of March was compelled to take refuge in a coup 
d'etat as regards the leaders of that movement amongst the Estates, 
there being nothing to prevent all such parties as seemed dangerous 



124 GENESIS OF THE 

We must confess that the ignorance of the true state of 
things, and the want of foresight exhibited by those whose 
duty it was to adopt measures for the preservation of order, 
cannot be justified. But we believe a consideration of the 
attendant circumstances will, in some measure, palliate their 
inactivity, as it was the result, not of their own choice, 
but of overruling events. Intentional treachery cannot be 
imputed to them ; they were, doubtless, true servants of the 
emperor, but no doubt unequal to the demands of the time.* 

That greyheaded statesman, who, on the 13th of March, 



from being taken into custody by the ordinary police. If the government 
had intended to make use of the assembly of the Estates of the 13th 
of March as a mere trap, it would certainly have taken the proper steps 
for seizing its prey when in the snare. That rumour is of importance as 
indicating the apprehension of the partisans of the Estates. How could 
such an alarm have arisen, if they had not been aware that some men of 
high station were informed of what was to take place in that assembly ? 
Why did not those persons cause some preventive measures to be 
adopted ? What was the ground of their remaining inactive spectators, 
as the artifice above alluded to could not be the cause ? We are proba- 
bly not mistaken in supposing that those who knew of the unusual agi- 
tation which was to be expected in the next assembly of the Estates of 
Lower Austria, did not, however, perceive the full extent and bearing 
of that agitation. They merely anticipated that, like an electric shock, 
it would stimulate the relaxed organs of the state to more vigorous 
action and accelerate desirable changes, both of men and measures, with- 
out endangering the principle of pure monarchy and social order. Such 
an illusion, however lamentable it may have been in its consequences, 
ought nevertheless to be excused, as even the assembled Estates both 
of Lower Austria and of Bohemia had no notion that their agitation 
would lead to the overthrow of all existing institutions. 

* The hatred against those men manifested up to this very hour by 
the daily press of Austria furnishes the most striking proof of their 
faithfulness. One of them who, since the 14th of March, 1848, had 
lived far from Vienna in quiet retirement, and who, in June 1850, only 
set foot in that city as he was passing through it, became immediately, 
and owing to that circumstance, the object of base attacks in the 
Viennese journals. The art of building barricades and dexterity in 
cat's-music was imported from Paris into Vienna ; but indulgence 
towards the supporters of fallen systems of government, Vienna has still 
to learn from Paris, where the press does not delight in calumniating 
statesmen who now only belong, as such, to history. 



REVOLUTION IX AUSTRIA. 125 

declared that lie liad played out his part, and whose task it had 
been through life to watch the political horizon far beyond 
the circuit of the Austrian monarchy, had long foreseen the 
impending danger to which the monarchy then fell a prey. 
At home and abroad, those persons to whom he unfolded his 
views, and they are not few, can confirm this statement. He 
always denounced the non-governing system as the chief evil 
of the state, and as originating in the confounding of 
administration with government. The existence of this 
evil was evident to him, and if his influence over the admi- 
nistration of the interior had been as powerful as the 
imperfectly-informed public believed, a remedy (but only 
in the monarchical sense) would long previously have been 
the result. It had by no means escaped his observation, that 
where this great fault does exist, kingdoms may continue to 
pursue their weary course without being outwardly dis- 
turbed, according to all appearance, until the authority 
which has been left unexercised, and which will always find 
itself a channel, falls from the hands of the highest into 
those of the lower classes, and an abnormal commotion 
amongst those classes who, with or without design, have 
occupied the sphere of government, leads at once to revolu- 
tion. Those persons with whom Prince Metternich has ever 
been on terms of intimacy, will remember these and similar 
observations to have been used by him. They will serve to 
show that he was conscious of the danger, and unceasingly 
spoke of the evil of neglecting it. Sins of omission in the 
sphere of government he considered as sure to avenge them- 
selves the most severely, and their consequences to be the 
most pernicious in regular governments, from their not 
being discovered until the governing power has given way ; 
for states, like all machines which require a " vis motrix " 
for their operation, after this has disappeared, may pro- 



126 GENESIS OF THE 

ceed for a given time, in virtue of their first impulse, but 

the moment of their stoppage soon arrives, and it is the 

moment of their death. If practical importance had been 

attributed to these views of the chancellor of state, the 

movement in favour of the sovereignty of the people in the 

year 1848, which, resulting, according to our conviction, 

from the French revolution, did not spare Austria, would at 

least have found the government provided with better means 

of resistance, and would have been less destructive in its 

effects. Convinced as we are that the danger we have alluded 

to was not unperceived by the chancellor, it might seem at 

first sight astonishing that, notwithstanding and in spite of 

positive warnings, the events of March 13th came upon him 

by surprise. But this apparent contradiction will disappear, 

by drawing a proper distinction between apprehensions for 

the distant future, and perceptions of evil which has already 

commenced. Metternich foresaw that a catastrophe could 

not be avoided, but he could not convince himself that it 

would soon occur ; because that branch of the government, 

whose duty it was to watch the sentiments of the people, to 

mark their evident tendencies, to prevent party excesses, 

and to warn the emperor of approaching danger, expressed 

no apprehension, although they were not ignorant of the 

threats and notices which reached the chancellor. Upon 

him, such efforts to intimidate, and such expressions of 

hatred or sympathy, were wholly unavailing ; for, during the 

long period which intervened between the "Vehmgericht,* 

to which Sand had lent his arm as the executioner 

of Kotzebue, and the days of March, in Vienna, he had 

* " Vehrngericht " was a secret tribunal of criminal justice peculiar 
to Westphalia during the Middle Ages, held by private individuals, 
without the authority of the state, when the government was too weak 
to act for itself. The last regular Yehmgericht was held at Celle, in 
1568.— Ed. 



DEVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 127 

become so accustomed to notices of such a nature, that 
they no longer gave him uneasiness ; they did not move the 
courage or determination of the man who felt himself con- 
scientiously bound not to swerve from the maxims which 
the world declared and insisted were his, and which his 
understanding compelled him to adopt as the very source of 
existence to the Austrian government. And so it might 
well happen, that to the distant prophet the approaching 
danger was not perceptible on the evening of the 13th of 
March. One may, perhaps, here observe, that he resembled 
that astrologer who, while his eyes were employed in reading 
remote dangers in the stars, was blind to the precipice 
beneath his feet, into which he accordingly fell. We are 
satisfied to adopt the simile, and answer, it was not the 
fault of the astrologer, if his guides, whose duty it was to 
warn him of the earthly precipice, whilst he, in discharge 
of his vocation, was lost in contemplating distant objects, 
did not themselves perceive the danger. The police autho- 
rities and the home administration should have been his 
leaders, but they failed in their duty ; whether it happened 
that their dim vision could not distinguish the brink of the 
precipice, or that their imprudence overlooked the real 
moment of danger. Their arm afterwards lacked the power 
to save him in the act of falling, as, perhaps, they had fondly 
imagined they could do — they fell together with him. 



128 GENESIS OF THE 



CHAPTER IV. 

the 13th, 14th, and 15th of march, 1848, in Vienna. 

On the 13th. of March, at nine o'clock in the morning, the 
students, dressed in proper costume and without weapons, 
proceeded to the house of the Estates, and drew themselves 
up in front of it ; a crowd of inquisitive persons followed 
them. The streets and even the court were filled with 
people who did not belong to the lower classes, and who 
were allured thither and harangued by some students who 
were chiefly Poles, assisted by others of similar opinions 
with their own. The members of the Estates in the mean 
time took their seats in their hall. A conversation was soon 
commenced from the windows of the assembly-room with 
the votaries of the muses, who thronged together in the 
courtyard. The provincial marshal and several members of 
the Estates zealously encouraged this mutual understanding, 
which was carried on amid continued shouts of " Long live 
the Emperor !" A Pole soon afterwards came into the street 
from a door of the assembly-house in a state of great excite- 
ment, holding a written paper in his hand, and immediately 
set the whole crowd in motion." 

* This paper, as the " Nieder Oesterreischischen Landstande und die 
Genesis, &c.," tells us, had been thrown into the courtyard by a person 
who had forced his entrance into the assembly of the Estates ; and it pro- 
posed that the people should not rest satisfied with what the assembled 
Estates should demand. We learn from the same pamphlet (page 25), 
that the order of the day embraced three projects of an address to the 
emperor, all of which referred to the common interests of all the provinces 
of the monarchy. 

The first demanded the convocation of the representatives of all the 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 129 

Did it arise from a feeling of indifference in the assembly 
of the Estates, or from sympathy with the mob outside, that 

provincial Estates, to be completed with men from those corporations 
and other political elements which were not represented, in order to 
examine the financial condition of the state, and to propose measures 
calculated to establish permanently general confidence, by placing the 
public finances on a secure footing, and by developing indisputably the 
representative system of the country. 

The second address supported the petition of Austrian citizens to the 
Estates of Lower Austria, alluded to in the previous chapter. 

The third requested of the emperor to effect an union of all the 
German federal states, under a common law of the press, with the 
abolition of the censorship, and the adoption of a system for repressing 
abuses. 

There was, however, added to these long-prepared projects of an 
address another subject for- the order of the day, namely, an imperial 
cabinet letter, first published in the before-mentioned pamphlet, which, 
on the evening of the 12th of March, had been directed to the high chan- 
cellor, and which the emperor had also communicated to the provincial 
marshal, Count Montecucoli. (See No. 3 of the Appendix.) The im- 
perial resolutions announced in this letter harmonized in the most 
essential parts with the demands which the Estates of Lower Austria 
intended to lay at the foot of the throne. Was this important concession 
of the sovereign not read aloud, or was it not listened to in the assembly 
of the Estates ? One or other of these results must have occurred, for 
there would have been, beyond a doubt, persons amongst the Estates 
who would have recognized a most undoubted guarantee of the honest 
wish of the emperor in regard to a suitable reform of the system of 
government in the resolution which he had freely adopted, " of uniting 
the representatives of the various provinces into one body, who should be 
consulted with reference to the relations of the Estates and the requirements 
of the moment, and to whom, if necessary, the assistance of the entire body 
of the various provincial Estates should be granted" The prorogation of 
the assembly of Estates, which commenced under the influence of a 
riotous mob, ought to have been the first fruit of the announcement of 
the emperor's honest wishes ; it ought to have followed that announce- 
ment out of respect for the other provincial Estates, which, according to 
the emperor's wish, were henceforth to take into consideration the 
general interests of the empire in conjunction with the estates of Lower 
Austria. On what grounds could the latter claim as their prerogative 
to press forward as the mouth-piece of all the Estates ? It is an un- 
doubted fact that many of the members who were present in the assembly 
were not made acquainted with the important imperial cabinet paper of the 
12th of March, 1848, before its appearance in the pamphlet, "Die Nieder 
Oesterreichischen Landstande, &c." We have also acquired the con- 
viction that this document had laid on the table of the houses of assembly 
on the morning of the loth of March, and was left altogether unnoticed. 



130 GENESIS OF THE 

they were induced to prolong their sittings in spite of the 
popular demonstration, which every moment increased, in 
place of adjourning the meeting and separating one by one 
as they had assembled, upon such indications of a near ap- 
proaching storm ? They continued together until the crowd, 
fanaticised by some orators, who suspected a stratagem from 
the accidental shutting of a door, rushed violently from 
the court into the assembly-room, and tearing up the seats, 
chairs, and benches, put an end to the meeting by such 
acts of outrage.* At the same time the people thronged 
to the Ball-place, before the house of the state chancellor, 
and to the other squares, where agitators, elevated on the 
shoulders of others or standing on the pumps, insisted on 
the necessity of wresting by force from their rulers those 
objects which had either been already obtained by the inha- 
bitants of neighbouring countries, or were at that moment 
the object of similar struggles. The passing military, not 
being required by the magistracy to interfere by force of 

This disregard of so important a letter, which is to us so inexplicable, 
at first created the impression in our mind that the emperor's letter of 
the 12th, by some delay in its delivery, had not yet reached the assembly 
on the 13th of March, and therefore, in describing the occurrences of 
that day, ought not to be taken into account. As we never had the 
honour of being classed among " the men of confidence " of the Estates 
for Lower Austria, our first erroneous impression may be excused. But 
we cannot help smiling at the suspicion which has been excited against 
us, of having in our first and second editions of "Genesis" made no 
mention of that imperial letter, "in order to preserve in oblivion that 
most unsuccessful note of the State Conference, as if it were the song of 
the dying swan." We are inclined to believe that this oblivion would 
"be desirable only in the interest of the Estates which made professions 
of their loyalty ; for how can the entire failure of the song of the dying 
swan be made to agree with such professions ? 

* We think it our duty to observe that the pamphlet, " Die Nieder 
Oesterriechischen Landstande und die Genesis," corrected this statement 
by saying "that at the rushing in into the assembly, it did not happen as 
mentioned in ' Genesis/ that chairs and benches, &c, were broken in 
the hall, but that in one of the adjoining saloons the benches broke 
under the weight of those standing on them." 



REVOLUTION IX AUSTRIA. 131 

arms, necessarily remained quiet spectators of the com motion, 
or at most could only act on the defensive, in resisting the 
pressure of the mob upon themselves. 

The moment, when the sitting of the Estates was inter- 
rupted by the intruders, marked precisely the point of 
departure from a street brawl to a revolution. Had the 
Estates decided that, in consequence of the violent inter- 
ruption of their meeting, they could neither consider nor 
adopt any further public measures, and that, therefore, they 
must postpone their debates until the restoration of tran- 
quillity, and commit the conduct of affairs to the autho- 
rities appointed for the preservation of order, and then dis- 
solved themselves, they would have reduced the character of 
the insurrection to a mere ordinary disturbance, for the tem- 
porary suppression of which at that moment the means at 
hand would have been undoubtedly sufficient had they been 
employed by the Estates for their protection, since the dis- 
turbance had not then extended to the other parts of the 
town or the suburbs. But the resolution of the Estates to 
lay the demands of the people before the emperor without 
delay, and with the provincial marshal at their head to march 
in a body to the castle, with a promise that they would 
announce the decision of the emperor to the expectant mul- 
titude, imparted to the tumult a grave political importance, 
since it was no longer a self-willed mob with which the 
authorities had now to deal, but at the head of this mob 
stood the Corporation of the Estates of Lower Austria, 
who had made the business their own, and had taken ad- 
vantage of their right to petition in order to call on the 
sovereign to change the existing order of things, in conformity 
with the spirit of the age, and who supported this demand 
with their whole political weight, relying upon the concur- 
rence of the Estates of the other provinces, in accordance with 

k2 



132 GENESIS OF THE 

their well-known sentiments. It no longer remained for 
the authorities, it was for the sovereign alone now to act. 

When the Estates reached the castle, the permanent State 
Conference, with the addition of some members of the State 
Council, were actually engaged in considering the events of 
the day. At this critical moment the want of a properly- 
organized ministerial council was very keenly felt ; no mem- 
ber of the superior executive power (president of the court 
offices) assisted at the consultation. None of those present 
was invested with executive authority, and therefore no 
resolution could be promptly acted upon with the common 
consent of all those engaged in the discussion. 

The Estates submited the demands of the people to the as- 
sembled council of the emperor, more in the character of medi- 
ators than as petitioners on their own account, and begged 
for a prompt and favourable decision, merely for the sake of 
public peace and the preservation of the throne from threat- 
ened danger. It was a prudent step on their part to adopt 
the character of mediators, since they were thus protected 
from responsibility on the score of participating in the dis- 
turbance in case of failure, and were sure of obtaining their 
own desires by the concessions which should be granted 
nominally to the people. The emperor was now in one of 
those difficult positions which sometimes occur in life, where 
one's conduct, should the event prove favourable, is rather 
the result of inspiration than of a careful consideration of all 
possible chances that may occur. The immediate answer, 
" Those who send you are rebels, and you who undertake 
this mission are partners in the rebellion, whom I will put 
down with a strong hand f or a reply on the other hand to this 
effect, "I have already taken proper measures to give my people 
the freest institutions in Germany, and we will consider toge- 
ther, without delay, the best mode of fulfilling these my inten- 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. LOO 

tions ; convey this decision to those who sent you, and bid them 
take heed how they bring upon themselves the arm of just 
punishment by disturbing the public peace :" one or other 
of such answers would have put an end at once to the 
threatened danger, but they were compatible only with the 
personal decision of a wholly irresponsible ruler, who could 
rely for support on his own unchangeable determination ; no 
board of councillors could propose such answers in any state, 
since a council must, in its proposals, follow the dictates 
of cool calculation, and not obey mere inspiration, which 
varies much according to individual character, and often 
leaves us to our own resources. The Austrian State Confe- 
rence, therefore, must not be censured for having offered 
advice to the emperor, which elicited no such decisive 
language. We must place ourselves in the condition of 
men who are clearly sensible of some of the faults of the 
existing government, and have an indistinct perception of 
others, and then consider whether, in support of such a 
government, a war should have been commenced ; whose 
issue, moreover, could not possibly be foreseen, on account of 
the difficulty of calculating the magnitude of the opposing 
brces. At the head of the army stood an imperial prince, 
young, talented, courageous, and active, but inexperienced in 
war, and to whom, in truth, as his first essay in the career 
of generalship, one would not willingly intrust that most 
difficult of all the duties of war, viz. the conduct of a street 
battle against an excited people. The daily occurrences in 
the Austrian monarchy and its several provinces must have 
occasioned a doubt, whether the insurrection could have been 
actually suppressed or merely postponed by a momentary 
victory obtained in the palace at the cost of torrents of 
blood. There seemed to be a natural connection between 
the forcible entry of a fanatical mob into the imperial castle, 



fi 



134 GENESIS OF THE 

which was in no respect prepared for resistance, and the 
flight of the royal family of Orleans, which had occurred in 
Paris scarcely three weeks previously. A. bold stroke, 
which a daring ruler might undertake from his own impulse, 
was more than the considerate advisers of Ferdinand ven- 
tured to propose. The councillors of the emperor were just 
as incompetent to suggest an answer of the second kind. 
Every man may surrender as much as he pleases of his own 
rights, but the protector of another's rights should never 
advise the sacrifice of more than is required by the strictest 
necessity. To a deliberative body the change of an absolute 
monarchy into a constitutional form of government could 
never be regarded as a necessary result of a demonstration 
made not only without an appeal to arms, but even by un- 
armed men. It seemed, however, indispensable, under any 
circumstances, that an attempt should be made to appease 
the storm with the smallest possible sacrifice. Whoever 
considers, without prejudice, the posture of affairs in the 
afternoon of the 13th of March, must admit that the plan 
proposed by the State Conference was the only one morally 
possible. They obtained from the emperor an assurance, which 
they were to communicate to the Estates of Lower Austria, to 
this effect : " That whatever the present emergencies might 
require should be submitted to a committee to be appointed 
for the purpose, and then laid before the emperor, and that 
his majesty would then speedily decide what was meet, 
having regard to the general welfare of the whole of his 
beloved subjects. And his majesty further relied on the 
attachment and unimpaired fidelity of the people of the 
capital for the establishment and future maintenance of 
peace." This imperial assurance was given orally to the 
Estates of Lower Austria ; and furthermore, the president of 
the Lower Austrian government, being summoned for that 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 135 

purpose, was commissioned to give public notice of the same 
by a proclamation of his own ; and further, to take care that 
the civil authorities, in their official costume, should require the 
people three times to disperse peaceably before the military 
power was brought out for that purpose. The commence- 
ment of the proclamation announced " that the Estates of 
Lower Austria, with the laudable intention of tranquillizing 
the excited population, had proved their readiness to lay their 
desires before the emperor, and that his majesty had been 
graciously pleased to receive them." It was intended by 
this that the character which the Estates had undertaken of 
mediators, should be made known, and that the idea should 
be abandoned that they shared the popular sentiments, 
which idea had made them the bearers of the petition, 
because the hope was generally indulged that the Estates 
would materially influence the leaders of the popular move- 
ment. But the hope was fallacious. The proclamation 
failed in its effect. The Estates, in public opinion, were con- 
sidered not only the bearers but the representatives of the 
petition they carried (and this was quite in accordance with 
the maxim (i vox populi vox Dei "), but the popular leaders 
expected a weightier and more decided result from their 
influence. The still increasing mob, who awaited their re* 
turn with impatience, was not satisfied ; its impatience and 
anger at the military, who watched its motions, increased 
every minute, until at length the soldiers, pressed hard at 
some points, in order to remain masters of their post and to 
defend themselves from personal attacks, had recourse to 
their arms. The number of those who were killed, partly 
in this manner and partly by injuries arising from the pres- 
sure of the mob, was estimated at seventeen, and amongst 
them was one of the most active popular orators, a Jewish 
student named Spitzer, who was wounded in the head with 



136 GENESIS OF THE 

a sword in an attempt to deprive a soldier of his horse, that 
he might mount it himself and parade the town, and so 
from an eminence address his audience with greater effect. 
When one hears these unfortunate beings spoken of as 
heroes who fell fighting for the liberties of the people, one 
scarcely grudges them this small share of fame, in their 
graves, bestowed as a tribute by their friends ; but it has no 
foundation in fact, for without fighting there can be no hero, 
and there was no fighting. There was an accident, it is true, 
like that which happened some years ago in an Italian town 
at a theatrical representation which took place in an arena. 
The disapprobation of the spectators was expressed louder 
than usual at the badness of the acting, and the persons 
whose duty it was to preserve order considered themselves 
justified in firing a volley. Some individuals fell a sacrifice, 
but it never entered the heads of any one to maintain that 
they were heroes who had fallen in defence of the liberty of 
hissing. 

The deaths which occurred in Vienna on the loth of 
March are the more to be deplored because they tended in 
no degree to forward the wishes of the people, and they 
either resulted from the hardihood of a few individuals, who 
ventured to insult the military, or else they arose from 
accident ; at all events, they furnished the evil-disposed with 
a new pretext for abusing the government and exciting the 
passions of the people. 

In the course of the afternoon a strong body of journey- 
man mechanics issued from the suburbs, celebrating the 
festivities of blue Monday, as it is termed ; they entered 
the town unarmed, and 'thronged towards the castle. The 
members of the civic guard likewise appeared there in 
uniform, the officers of which corps were allowed the entree to 
the rooms on court festivals ; the honourable uniform which 



REVOLUTION IX AUSTRIA. 137 

they wore procured them admission to the castle, from 
which they would otherwise have been excluded by the mili- 
tary. These persons also played the part of mediators, and 
under this title sought an audience of the emperor. But 
his majesty, deeply shocked at the events of the day, had 
retired. His uncle, the Archduke Louis, received them, and 
heard, with his customary tranquillity and kindness, their 
vows of attachment to the imperial house, their prognosti- 
cations of the approaching danger, their wild plans for re- 
sisting its approach, and even their very grievances, which 
last were confined to a misunderstanding that had taken 
place at the door of a police office, in consequence of which 
the police soldiers, drawn up there, had fired on a body of 
citizens in uniform, who were in the act of approaching too 
near. It is remarkable that the grievance seemed to consist, 
not so much in the actual firing, as in the shots having been 
directed against the citizens ; the warmth of the spokesman 
caused a distinguished military officer who was present to ob- 
serve, " that when citizens became rebels, even they must be 
fired upon." The spokesman thereupon fell into such a rage, 
that he rushed into the ante-room, shouting, " that he would 
go down and announce to the faithful and loyal citizens of 
Yienna that they were to be shot." Some considerate indi- 
viduals, however, succeeded in seizing and restraining the 
excited man. He was a well-known wine- merchant, and 
seems on that day to have made too free with his own com- 
modities. 

The members of the Estates, who had previously acted as 
mediators, now united themselves with the citizens, and ap- 
peared again in the same capacity. They unanimously in- 
sisted on the necessity of appeasing the excited mob, by 
paying immediate attention to some of their demands, as 
the population of the suburbs and of the neighbouring vil- 



138 GENESIS OF THE 

lages already took part in the general tumult. But what 
those demands exactly were, the Fulfilment of which would 
allay the storm, it was not so easy to ascertain, in con- 
sequence of the confusion and disturbance which reigned 
around. 

Meanwhile night approached. Like the Moor, in Schiller's 
Fiesco, who, when he had lent all the assistance in his power 
to his master's design to strip old Doria of the ducal mantle, 
in the evening began to think of making something for him- 
self and his adherents ; so the people of Vienna were willing 
to close that day of commotion, in whose noon-tide business 
they had taken part, by turning the evening to their own 
account. Bands of robbers and murderers over- awed the 
suburbs and the neighbourhood ; rumours of the most alarm- 
ing kind were circulated through the town. A forcible 
attack was made on the shop of the court apothecary, a 
building which was connected with the castle by a passage, 
in order, as is supposed, to force an entry through that un- 
defended way into that part of the castle which was close to 
the apartment inhabited by the emperor. 

At that critical moment, a third set of mediators appeared 
before the Archduke Louis, viz. the academical senate of 
the iiniversity, with their grey-headed "rector magnificus" 
at their head, distinguished by the colane* appended from 
his neck. It was the object of this deputation to make a 
positive request, -viz. for permission that the students might 
take weapons from the imperial arsenal, and hasten to the 
suburbs, to stop the dreadful attacks which were there making 
upon life and property. The proposal to put arms in the 
hands of the very persons who, when unarmed, had been the 
promoters of disturbance during the whole day, must have 

* " Colane/' the badge of office worn hy the rector. 



[REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 139 

occasioned some surprise. But, after a long negotiation, the 
rector of the university threw himself on his knees before the 
archduke, and implored him to confide in these young men : 
two thousand of them, he said, the hope of so many families, 
were filled with such enthusiasm, that, if attacked, they were 
ready to fling themselves blindly on the bayonets of their 
opponents ; what streams of noble blood would then flow : an 
opportunity now offered to avoid this danger, by giving their 
ardour a proper direction ; they burned with anxiety to prove 
their readiness to defend order and right ; the military were 
too few, and already wearied by the exertions of the day, to 
resist the threatened danger with success : why, therefore, 
should they not, in defence of property, avail themselves of 
the willingness and youthful energy of the students % Let 
them only be trusted, and they would show that they were 
fully worthy of such confidence. 

This address of the old man, delivered with enthusiasm, 
could not fail in its effect on the noble and benevolent spirit 
of the Archduke Louis. The request was first orally granted, 
and subsequently a proper order was drawn up by a secre- 
tary, addressed to the authorities, to the following effect : — 
a That for the preservation of peace and order, the arming of 
the students (with the exception of foreigners) should be per- 
mitted, under proper regulations." The order was handed to 
the assembled members of the State Conference for perusal. 
Those members of the Estates who had appeared in the capa- 
city of mediators were present in the room during the above 
negotiation. One of them took up the order, and (with a 
pencil) added the following sentence, as an amendment : — " It 
is further expected that all citizens will lend their aid to the 
above, by enrolling themselves in the civic guard, and will 
assist in the preservation of peace." And this amendment, 
though introduced by an unauthorised hand, was considered 



140 GENESIS OF THE 

so milch a matter of course, and so unimportant in its mean- 
ing, that it was not opposed. 

In this manner the arming of the people was unadvisedly 
introduced in the capital. 

Scarcely was it eifected, before the mediators from the Es- 
tates, and the citizens who still lingered in the chambers of the 
archduke, raised a loud cry for the liberty of the press. It hap- 
pened by accident that, on the 1 3th of March, the royal order 
of the Prussian cabinet, which was issued on the 8th of the 
same month, appeared in the Vienna newspapers, with a royal 
decree for a reform in the laws of the press, based upon the 
abolition of the censorship. With this example before them, 
which was set, moreover, by that power of Germany which 
had ever been most friendly to the Austrian maxims of 
government, a resistance to the popular demand did not 
seem advisable : moreover, as we have already said, in our 
sketch of the Austrian state machine, the censorship in Aus- 
tria had failed in its effect ; no voice, therefore, in the State 
Conference could recommend a contest in support of the cen- 
sorship ; on the contrary, it was deemed prudent to yield to 
the demand, precisely as it had been acceded to by the Prus- 
sian government. The chancellor retired to the adjoining 
cabinet, and placed himself at his desk, to prepare the sketch 
of an answer, in the spirit of the Prussian order, to 
be laid before the emperor. The leaders of the people 
having now secured offensive and defensive weapons, both 
for the hand and head, availed themselves of this momen- 
tary absence, to get rid of the man whose character, prin- 
ciples, experience, and authority would have checked all 
excess in the use of those weapons. In a decisive tone, they 
demanded, that, to appease the people, Prince Metternich 
should retire from his post. The increasing tumult in the 
adjoining room called the chancellor back from his desk ; 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 141 

lie approached the archduke, and asked what the noise 
meant. He was informed that his own retirement was pro- 
posed. This was the moment when all the strength of soul 
which distinguished that great man, was put to the proof. 
To leave a post which he had filled with the greatest re- 
nown for nine-and-thirty years, in which he had earned the 
confidence not only of the whole imperial house, but of ail 
the rulers of Europe, and had taken an influential part in 
the most important affairs of the world ; to witness the clouds 
of incense in which he had been enveloped, by sincere as well 
as by hypocritical reverence, suddenly dispersed by a gust of 
wind ; to reap the basest ingratitude in return for his ceaseless 
exertions to promote the interests of the state and the wel- 
fare of his fellow-citizens ; all this was doubtless calculated 
to waken feelings in an old veteran, so bitter in their effect, 
that one could hardly have been surprised, if he had sunk 
under their weight. But such was not the case. With un- 
moved tranquillity and dignified composure, he declared, 
a that the task of his life had been to work for the welfare 
of the monarchy, in the position which he occupied ; but if 
it appeared to any that his continuing in the same would 
peril the monarchy, he would consider it no sacrifice to retire 
from his post." He then turned to the Archduke Louis, 
and said, he placed his office in the hands of the emperor. 
He then addressed the leaders of that mixed assembly which 
on that eventful evening besieged the palace of the arch- 
duke, in the following memorable words of farewell : — " I 
foresee, too plainly, that a false opinion will spread abroad, 
that in retiring from my post I have dragged down the 
monarchy along with me. But I enter my solemn protest 
against such an assertion. Neither I nor any other man has 
strength enough to destroy a state. Em pires may vanish, 
but only when they betray themselves." The deportment 



142 GENESIS OF THE 

of the venerable statesman, when confronting the fury of his 
enemies, cannot be better described than in the words of 
the Roman poet : — 

Justum et tenacem propositi virum 
Non civium ardor prava jubentium 
-* *- * * * * * 

Mente quatit solida : 

* ■* -* * •* * * # 

Si fractus illabatur orbis, 
Impavidum ferient ruinae. 

In remarkable contrast with this magnanimity of soul 
was the deportment of his exulting foes. On hearing the 
news of his retirement, they shouted with triumph, and has- 
tened to convey the joyful intelligence to the mob, whose 
representatives they were. 

The chancellor, who had so suddenly and so unexpectedly 
closed his political career, was so little moved by this change 
of circumstances, that he discoursed for a long time with his 
friends in his customary manner over the events of the day 
and their consequences, as if he himself had been by no 
means personally interested in them. The observation of 
some friends, that his retirement from the helm of the state 
could not be considered as certain, since the emperor had 
not given his consent, which he would probably withhold, 
elicited the decisive answer, " That he would never agree to 
retain his place in such a manner, as his retirement would 
. then be looked upon as a mere farce, to which he would be no 
party ; that his decision was taken, and nothing could change 
it but the entreaties of those who had occasioned its 
adoption." 

Thus ended the 13th of March, the day on which the 
virtual revolution which, as we have shown, commenced 
long before, was formally proclaimed in the capital. The 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 143 

events of this day were, — "An acknowledgment of the 
necessity of timely reforms, with an assurance that they 
would be immediately considered and speedily introduced by 
the emperor; the arming of the students and citizens of 
Vienna ; the determination to grant freedom of the press 
after the example of Prussia ; and the removal of the most 
distinguished opponent of the sovereignty of the people." 
During the night many thousand stands of fire-arms were 
distributed with the greatest speed to the students and 
other inhabitants of Vienna from the imperial and city 
arsenals, without any regard to the personal character of the 
applicants. All who were armed in this manner laid claim 
to the honour of being ready to march against the bands 
of robbers in the suburbs and beyond the limits of Vienna. 

On the morning of the 14th of March the streets were 
again filled with men. The suddenly-equipped City-guard 
assembled in the neighbourhood of the castle. They were 
sensible that the consent to their establishment wore the 
appearance of a measure suddenly required by the emergency 
of the times, and that they had thus no guarantee for their 
continuance. Under the advice and guidance, therefore, of 
experienced advisers, their exertions were directed to pro- 
curing for themselves a character of stability. On this 
account they preferred the double request, that they might 
assume the title of National Guard, and have a commander in 
the person of one of the imperial princes (the Archduke 
William). Neither of these requests was approved of by 
the council of the emperor. The first failed, because it was 
thought that the arming of the students and citizens under 
a momentary pressure for the maintenance of peace in Vienna 
ought to receive a title adapted to the local origin and object 
in view. But the question, whether a measure which might 
be necessary for Vienna should at once be converted into a 



144 GENESIS OF THE 

national institution, was a point not discussed, nor likely to 
be discussed in times of such disturbance, and demanded, at all 
events, the most careful consideration, especially in regard to 
the Italian provinces, where the revolutionary party placed 
their chief strength in the arming of the people. For these 
reasons, the title of " the Yienna Civic Guard " was adopted 
as unobjectionable. The second request failed, because, on 
the morning of the 14th of March, the Archduke Albert 
had resigned the command of the troops to Prince Win- 
dischgratz, who happened accidentally to be present in 
Vienna, because it was not considered advisable that there 
should be an immediate connection between one of the 
imperial princes and an excited people. The citizens, 
therefore, withdrew their second request, but with regard 
to the first they would not accept a refusal. Accordingly, the 
mediators of the previous day again volunteered their inter- 
ference. Whether it arose from short-sightedness or fear, 
or was a fixed plan, they maintained that the title given to 
the newly-raised body was a matter of unimportance, and 
not worth the danger to the throne which might result from 
a contention on the subject. Persons high in office, and 
aristocrats in the strictest sense of the word, were of this 
opinion, without reflecting that the very obstinacy with 
which the people, under the guidance of their leaders and 
seducers, insisted on the title of " National Guard," must 
have had some deep design at the bottom. They succeeded, 
however, in obtaining the emperor s consent. Count Hoyos, 
field marshal and colonel of the rifles, was appointed to be 
commander of the national guards. On the first announce- 
ment of this news in Yienna, the magic effect of a title 
which had been represented as wholly unimportant, was at 
once apparent, for, with the exception of the governor of 
Galicia,, Count Francis Stadion, no land chief could prevent 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 145 

the people from considering the arming the people of Vienna 
as a national institution, consented to by the emperor, to be 
adopted everywhere without restriction. The consequence 
of this was, that the effective power of the authorities in 
opposition to the people was sensibly weakened. 

Thus the possession of all material means for fighting 
the battle of freedom was secured to the people. 

It now only remained to place moral weapons in the hands 
of the people. On the 13th of March it had been resolved 
to grant the liberty of the press ; but in this measure the 
peaceful example of Prussia was to be followed, and with the 
removal of the censorship, certain measures were to be in- 
troduced for the purpose of repressing abuses. Even as 
early as the 14th, the State Conference was engaged in 
framing the intended measures. But a peaceful transition 
from the tyranny of the censorship to the freedom of the 
press by no means satisfied either the domestic or foreign 
demagogues, who were the leaders of the popular distur- 
bances, any more than the vain and speculative literati, or the 
students who were under their control. The censorship 
must be instantly abolished. They united all their efforts to 
excite the mob of Vienna, whose throats and vigorous arms 
they needed for the furtherance of their own objects, to a 
pitch of enthusiasm in favour of the liberty of the press. 
Although the mob did not enjoy the reputation of being 
able to set a very high value on those intellectual enjoyments 
which the liberty of the press secures, they became, never- 
theless, so enthusiastic for the possession of these unknown 
benefits, that their violent conduct became even more 
alarming than it had been on the previous day. 

The mediating friends of the throne and the dynasty now 
discovered a new field for the exercise of their activity. 
They intruded into the antechambers of the emperor to offer 

L 



146 GENESIS OP THE 

their well-meant advice. But the wise resolution had been 
adopted, that the sovereign should not treat personally with 
riotous petitioners and threateners, and their admission was 
therefore refused by the chamberlain on duty. Regardless 
of the prohibition, they sought to force a way into the cham- 
ber. The officer, a noble Hungarian magnate, remembered 
and respected the duty to which he was sworn, and standing 
in the doorway with his hand upon his sword, vowed in a firm 
tone that while he occupied that post no one should cross the 
threshold. The mediators retired, and, finding a back en- 
trance, they succeeded in laying their benevolent apprehen- 
sions and proposals before the emperor. Shortly afterwards it 
was announced publicly, " That his majesty had been pleased 
to decree the abolition of the censorship, and the immediate 
publication of a law to regulate the press ! " 

Shouts of joy re-echoed amongst the masses, for the leaders 
of the mob saw themselves in possession of the physical and 
moral means necessary to establish the sovereignty of the 
people. In their intoxication of joy they resolved to decorate 
the statue of the Emperor Joseph II. with a crown of flowers, 
and to fasten a banner to his brazen hand bearing the inscrip- 
tion, " Liberty of the Press." Those who acted thus, forgot 
the short duration of the concessions which this philosophic 
emperor had himself made to the spirit of the age, otherwise 
they would assuredly not have allowed the announcement of 
such a boon to glitter in the very hand which had formerly de- 
prived them of a similar blessing ! But the popular joy arose 
not so much from the favours already obtained as from the 
certain prospect of achieving a triumph which was already 
announced by a thousand voices in the streets, though it had 
not yet been proposed to the emperor by any of the medi- 
ators, as an indispensable condition for the salvation of the 
monarchy and the dynasty, — viz., the granting a constitu- 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 147 

iion. Every one exclaimed in the streets that the national 
guard and freedom of the press had been obtained bit by 
bit, and that the rest would soon follow. 

The sagacious leaders of the revolution were aware that 
in the word " constitution " was included the destruction of 
all the elements of the subsisting government, and they knew 
that even the hasty and inconsiderate use of the expression 
itself in presence of the throne would excite the government 
to resist its introduction by every means in their power. It 
was therefore necessary to proceed more quietly, and with 
greater caution than had been observed in introducing those 
other partial and popular measures, which seemed to have 
arisen from the very circumstances of the time. It was 
especially requisite to prevent the populace from abandoning 
themselves to excess of joy at the achievements of the day, 
lest, whilst they reposed on their laurels, they should disre- 
gard their hazardous situation, which might, perhaps, demand 
further services from the mediators. The manner in which the 
imperial resolution with regard to the press was drawn up, 
gave occasion to this suspicion, and was turned very cleverly 
to account. The favourite term, "Liberty of the Press," 
was not employed therein, although the substance of that ex- 
pression was included in the abolition of the censorship, and 
in the introduction of a law to regulate the press. But the 
intelligence of the Vienna people was not sufficiently ad- 
vanced to recognize this truth. And upon this the leaders 
of the disturbance constructed their plan : they endeavoured 
to misrepresent the intentions of the emperor, and started 
the idea, that only the laws of the existing censorship were 
abolished, and that the press would remain still fettered hy 
the laws which it was intended to enact. To the joy of the 
people now succeeded a feeling of disappointment, which was 
rendered more acute by the idea that they had been deluded 

l2 



148 GENESIS OF THE 

and deceived. The intensity of this feeling may be esti- 
mated by the fact that, on the following day, when every 
demand had been acceded to, the publishers of Vienna cir- 
culated a manifesto declaring that, in order to put an end to 
improper and malicious reports which asserted that the liberty 
of the press had not been granted in the real meaning of the 
word, they were determined to exercise the privilege of a 
free press, and to call on all the intelligent classes in the 
monarchy, by an active participation in such freedom, to 
establish the welfare of their country and the peace of the 
community. 

The misunderstanding which was kept alive by this 
means served as a sufficient ground for continuing to advise 
that all the still subsisting causes of danger should be re- 
moved. But this was done, not as formerly through nume- 
rous deputations to the emperor himself, or to the State 
Conference, but by means of more wary and cautious appli- 
cations indirectly to the presumptive heir to the throne, in 
the confident expectation that if they could succeed in 
making him friendly to a constitution, and in rendering 
him its advocate, he would not meet with any strong oppo- 
sition from his brother or his advisers, being himself the 
immediate successor. This manoeuvre was supported by cir- 
culating the most fearful reports of alarming assemblages in 
the suburbs of the town. A notorious theatrical poet, who 
was at the head of the political regenerators, and had suc- 
ceeded some time before in introducing a play on the boards 
of the Burg Theatre, which ridiculed the government, and 
even the highest personage in the state, rushed, as if panic- 
struck, into the Burg, and wrote down in an ante-room the 
announcement that an excited mob was approaching. It 
was due to the calm and correct apprehension of Prince 
"Windischgratz, and to his cool presence of mind, intrusted 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 149 

as lie was with the safety of the court and the town, 
that such alarming news did not lead to the adoption of 
improper measures. But they fully attained their object, 
since, on the evening of the same day, at the request of the 
presumptive heir to the throne, the State Conference was 
summoned, at which, also, the heir expectant to the throne 
(the Archduke Francis Joseph, the present emperor) attended, 
in order to consider whether it was not advisable that the 
emperor should voluntarily meet the demands of his people, 
by the promise of a constitution. 

On the following day (March 15) the inhabitants of 
Vienna were astonished, on awakening, by the proclamation, 
" That his majesty, taking into consideration the existing po- 
litical events, had determined to assemble around the throne 
the Estates of his German and Slavonian dominions, as also the 
Central Congregations of the Lombardo -Venetian kingdom, 
by means of representatives, in order to insirce their co-ope- 
ration in legislative and administrative questions. For this 
purpose his majesty would take the necessary steps to con- 
voke the said assembly for the 3rd of July, in the present 
year, if not earlier."* 

* On comparing the contents of this manifesto with that of the 12th 
of March, concerning which, as we have been informed, the Provincial 
Marshal had been consulted in the evening of that day, and which im- 
mediately npon its birth was buried among the dust of the archives, we 
cannot help noticing that the tenor of these two manifestoes was very 
similar. It so happened, however, that the manifesto of the 12th of 
March was contemptuously laid aside, — that of the 15th, received with 
shouts and acclamations. The reason of the reception of these mani- 
festoes being so opposite to each other in their nature, was, that on the 
13th of March, when that of the 12th was before the assembly, Prince 
Metternich still held the reins of government, and the originators of 
the movement were not yet in possession of the physical and moral 
weapons which, on the 1 4th, the creation of the national guard, and the 
abolition of the censorship furnished to them. They might, conse- 
quently, not entertain any hope of enforcing such an interpretation of 
the emperor's words as would suit their ends. On the 15th of March, 



150 GENESIS OF THE 

There is no doubt that this imperial decree, which was 
made public by means of a printed proclamation on the 
morning of March 15th, was the result of a conference 
which lasted to a late hour in the night, and which, accord- 
ing to the rumours of the town, was attended by the Arch- 
dukes Francis Charles, Francis Joseph, Albrecht, and Louis, 
the minister of state, Count Koiowrath, the temporary chief 
of the military and civil affairs at Vienna, Prince Windisch- 
gr'atz, the minister of state, Count Munch-Bellinghausen, the 
president of the Exchequer Chamber, Baron Kiibeck, and 
the chiefs of the sections of the State-Council for the affairs 
of the interior and of justice, Count Hartig and Baron 
Pilgram. By considering what this proclamation says, and 
what it omits to say, we may discover the maxims which 
guided the conference. 

In the first place, the emperor's decree ann ounces the 
conviction, that the concessions which had been made to 
the Lower Austrian Estates, and to the citizens of Vienna, 
since the 13th of March, which comprised the arming of the 
people and the freedom of the press, had rendered an essential 
reform in the system of government an inevitable necessity, 
and that this reform must consist in the renunciation of 
absolutism, since, for the future, the representatives of the 
people were to take part in the legislative functions, and in 
the control of the administration. 

Everything was thus admitted which forms the essence 
of a constitutional system. 

But when we observe that in the proclamation made on 
the morning of the 15th of March, the word " constitution " 
is not mentioned, we are forced to inquire the reason for the 

however, they were in possession of the means for multiplying the free 
concessions of the emperor by extorting others. Hence the shouts of 
acclamation. 



RE VOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 151 

omission of this word, since we cannot suppose that if the 
substance was promised, the mere expression was accidentally- 
omitted. 

An attentive regard to the form of the Austrian monarchy 
may answer the question. It consisted at that time of divi- 
sions, some of which (such as Hungary and Transylvania) 
already possessed an ancient form of constitution, which 
had been sworn to by the sovereign, whilst others were 
governed absolutely, in which, however, there existed cer- 
tain corporate bodies, who enjoyed a share not so much 
in the government as in particular branches of the adminis- 
tration, by virtue of important privileges which had been 
conceded to them by the sovereign. It is therefore clear 
that the advisers of the crown, in omitting the word " con- 
stitution," in respect of the new character of the sovereign 
towards these latter portions of the monarchy, had care- 
fully considered the importance of the expression, since by 
proclaiming a constitution that was to serve for some parts 
of the empire and not for others, the unity of the Austrian 
monarchy would have been endangered, and its disrupture 
into separate constitutional states have been prepared. These 
states, indeed, might have perhaps for some time preserved 
the semblance of union, by having a common head, but this 
union would have subsisted only so long as no conflict respect- 
ing their separate interests, or rivalry between the representa- 
tives, placed the executive power of the common head be- 
tween the opposing demands of the divided legislative bodies, 
and thereby rendered an open breach inevitable. The 
events which had happened in the Diet of Presburg showed 
that the moment for such a conflict was not far distant. 
Moreover, the proclamation of a constitution for those parts 
of the monarchy which did not belong to Hungary or 
Transylvania, rendered the abolition of Constitutional Estates 



152 GENESIS OF THE 

necessary in the provinces where they existed, to which 
step the Conference did not think proper alone to advise 
the emperor, in opposition to the wishes of the Lower 
Austrian Estates and the citizens of Vienna, since the 
privileges of the Estates had been confirmed partly by the 
oath of the emperor, and partly by his sign-manual. Con- 
sidered in this point of view, the omission of the expression 
u constitution," in the imperial proclamation, seems to have 
been quite in character with the circumstances, particularly 
as the future course of proceeding was not compromised ; 
but the question was rather left open for the consideration 
of the representatives of the particular provinces, who were 
to assemble round the throne, at latest in the beginning of 
July, in order to advise on this point, whether it were 
possible, by an understanding with the Estates of Hungary 
and Transylvania, to convert the aggregate monarchy into a 
single constitutional state. 

The first impression made upon the population of Vienna 
by the proclamation which appeared on the morning of the 
15th March, and which had been determined upon the "night 
before by the emperor, upon the proposal of the Conference, 
was very favourable, notwithstanding the omission of the 
word "constitution." The manifesto of the publishers of 
Vienna, and the general rumour that the censorship upon 
the newspapers had that day ceased, overcame the mistrust 
entertained for the sincerity of the government. The public 
feeling displayed itself so gratefully to the emperor, that he 
resolved to show himself to the people, during a drive 
in the afternoon. This drive clearly proved that popular 
opinion resembles the air-bubble in a levelling machine, 
which is impelled first to one side, then to another, 
as it is directed by the hand which guides it. The 
same people who two days before had threatened the 



REVOLUTION IX AUSTRIA. 153 

residence of the emperor, wished now to prove their attach- 
ment to him by taking the horses from his carriage and 
substituting their own personal strength in their stead, it 
afforded at once matter for laughter and for serious reflec- 
tion, to mark a member of the Lower Austrian Estates 
clearing the way for the imperial carriage. It was not in 

truth 

"A noble count on prancing steed," 

like the baron in the ballad of the brave hero who, with a 
well-filled purse in his hand, offered a reward to him who 
should save the poor tax-gatherer from drowning ; but with 
the weapon of the Estates at his side, and the three-cornered 
hat of the Estates upon his head, our Count sought by the 
magic influence of these distinctive emblems to throw his 
shield over the emperor, and protect the latter from his 
rejoicing people ! So great was the sympathy of this people 
either for the person of the " noble count on prancing steed," 
or for the assembly to which he belonged, that every one 
firmly believed he had been summoned to precede the lord 
of the realm in the capacity of his protector. What could 
have occasioned such an idea, if not the consciousness of 
former exertions to win popular favour, and of the influence 
arising from its possession and direction ! We relate this 
unimportant anecdote, as it will help us to estimate the cha- 
racter and real nature of the events which have lately taken 
place. * 

* Our supposition that the member of the Lower Austrian Estates 
rode before the emperor with the intention of protecting him, is con- 
tradicted in the "Nieder Oesterreichischen Landstande und die Gene- 
sis." It is there stated that " the first occasion of it is said to have 
been the wish to convert the drive of the emperor into the Prater, as 
projected by the courtiers, into a drive through the various parts of the 
city." 

We are inclined to doubt whether at that time a drive into the 
Prater had been projected. But if such had been the case, the deter- 



154 GENESIS OF THE 

During this triumph of the mob, the men who held in 
their hands the strings by which the theatrical puppets 
were set in motion, found new materials to produce discord 
by circulating unjust suspicions. They found fault, for 
instance, with the omission of their favourite catch-word 
" The Constitution " in the late imperial proclamation, and 
remarked that under the term " The Estates " those classes 
of the people who were formerly unprivileged should be 
included, an object of long contention. They asserted that 
this proclamation had not been published in the official 
Vienna gazette of the day (which, doubtless, occurred from 
the news having been carried too late to the office) ; they 
conceived that the form of customary ceremony in which all 
the imperial concessions of the 13th and 14th of March had 
been published, should be observed in events of such impor- 
tance, and they commenced awakening suspicions with regard 
to the sincerity of the government, and exciting distur- 
bance. The State Conference was informed of the threatening 
dissensions, and endeavoured to prevent them by announcing 
that on that very day, to put an end to the popular commotion, 
an imperial decree would appear as the Magna Charta of the 
Austrians, in which each concession granted during the past 
days would be successively enumerated, the satisfaction of 
the emperor at the gratitude exhibited to him on the occasion 
of his appearance would be expressed, together with a hope 
that the minds of the people would be tranquillized, that 
the studies of the university would be pursued as usual, and 
that trade and peaceful commerce would once more flourish. 

urination of a member of the Lower Austrian Estates, — who did not 
belong to the court — to change, according to his own pleasure, the di- 
rection of that drive, must have originated in the consciousness of the 
moral power possessed by himself, or by the body whose insignia he 
wore. Though we may, therefore, have been mistaken with regard to 
the intentions of that member, the inference which we may have drawn 
from his conduct seems to have been correct. 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 155 

In this decree (which will be found at full in the supple- 
ment to this work, No. 1) the declaration could be fearlessly 
made, that the convocation of the provincial Estates would 
take place with a fuller representation of the citizens, and 
with proper attention to the provincial Constitutions, be- 
cause these very points, even before the month of March, 
had been discussed in the Estates. It was remarkable, 
however, that the word "Constitution" should be found in 
this decree, as it seemed to be imperative, for the grave 
reasons already mentioned, that it should have been 
avoided. The information we have carefully collected esta- 
blishes the following fact : — The State Conference wished 
to substitute in the patent, in place of the ominous word 
" constitution," the expression " a constitutional arrangement 
of the country," by which phrase, on the one hand, a 
pledge was given for a real sharing of the legislative power 
between the sovereign and the representatives of the people, 
and on the other, it was intimated that this object was to be 
attained not in the stereotyped manner lately adopted, but 
by having due regard to the peculiar circumstances of the pro- 
vinces of the empire. Whoever considers, without prejudice, 
the nature of the materials of which the Austrian monarchy 
is composed, must admit that the plan chosen was the most 
advisable, with a "view to reconcile with the existence of the 
state the demands of the people who reposed so little confi- 
dence in the government. But there were persons who 
insisted that their favourite catch-word should be pronounced 
by the emperor, not as an adjective, but as a substantive, in 
an absolute sense, and they succeeded in this case, as on the day 
before in reference to the naming of " the National Guard." 
By representing the matter as an un important verbal distinc- 
tion, they induced the kind-hearted monarch to comply with 
their request. We consider it our duty to mention to our 



156 GENESIS OF THE 

readers these circumstances, derived as they are from unques- 
tionable authority, on account of the general censure which 
has been heaped upon the chief advisers of the crown both 
by the Conservative and the revolutionary party, whether 
justly or unjustly it is not for us to say. We content our- 
selves with stating well-known facts, in order to place in a 
true light the conduct of those men who figured in the three 
<Jays' catastrophe. 

On the 15th of March the inhabitants of Vienna might 
exclaim " Post nubila Phoebus," since the gloomy political 
horizon of the previous days was converted into a momentary 
brightness. To the joy of the morning succeeded in the 
afternoon and in the evening a second and a third triumph. 
The Archduke Stephen, Palatine of Hungary, came from 
Presburg to Vienna. He was accompanied by the Hunga- 
rian deputation, who were bearers of the celebrated address 
proposed by Kossuth on the 3rd March, and adopted by 
both Estates of the kingdom. The deputies were attended 
by a crowd, consisting of many hundred young Magyars. 
The archduke was received with acclamations of joy. The 
same vain homage which had been offered to the emperor some 
hours before, was paid to him. The deputies and their at- 
tendants were received with shouts of applause by the national 
guard and citizens, and attended to their dwellings. What 
could be the object or the meaning of such ovations ? The 
strangers had evidently contributed nothing to those conces- 
sions, from which the inhabitants of Vienna expected so 
much happiness. It must, therefore, have been in consequence 
of some secret combination that these latter felt themselves 
compelled to offer their thanks to those who, on that impor- 
tant day, appeared in Vienna, with the intention, doubtless, of 
dissolving the union of a hundred years between Hungary and 
Austria, in order to substitute in its place a new bond of a 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 157 

less enduring kind. The clay of this meeting with the Hun- 
garian deputation, numerous in itself, and accompanied by 
still more numerous followers, was. that on which it had been 
previously determined that the populace should shout for a 
constitution in Vienna, but whether this was to result from 
the free exercise of imperial generosity at the moment of 
meeting it was impossible to determine. It seems, there- 
fore, beyond doubt that the enthusiastic reception of the 
Huno-arian strangers was intended as a tribute of thanks for 
their willing help, which was ready for action on the de- 
cisive day, though their aid was for the moment no longer 
necessary. The part which the Magyars played in the fol- 
lowing October, reduces this suspicion to a certainty. 

But in the midst of all this triumph the distarbers of the 
public peace never ceased to fan the flame of discontent. 
Men who, from their external appearance, were strangers in 
Vienna, mingled with the throng, and whispered to the by- 
standers " ere the constitution is ready the Russians will be 
here." 

When we consider the events which happened in Austria 
and its provinces in the first half of the month of March, 
and remember the lessons of experience which teach, that in 
the depths of human determination and action none but un- 
important words and deeds are allowed to meet the public 
eye, we must feel convinced that the party whose object was 
the establishment of the sovereignty of the people, had cast 
out their nets with wonderful skill to entrap the honest but 
thoughtless friends of gradual reform, and place them appa- 
rently at the head of the movement, deluding them with the 
hope of observing all proper restraints of right and justice, 
and afterwards discarding them as tools no longer fit for 
use. It cannot be uninteresting to hear the voice of one of 
the organs of this party on the subject of the events at 



158 GENESIS OF THE 

Vienna. The paper published under the title of the Consti- 
tution contains in its number for the 19th of October, 1848 
(No. 173), the following remarkable announcement : — 

" There are men who would render public writers, and even 
journalists, responsible for all those occurrences in a revolu- 
tion which do not correspond with their own views, not to 
mention others to whom the very idea of a revolution is a 
heinous crime. But do such men consider what writers the 
13th of March called forth 1 It would seem that if a public 
press had previously existed in Austria, the transition might 
have been easier from the old to a new state of things. Doubt- 
less there did exist a certain class of public writers before 
the 13th of March, but who can say that their works pro- 
duced any effect upon the people ? It has been seen that in 
March the movement affected those classes of society who 
had not yet tasted the apple of knowledge, no less than those 
who had ever been opponents of reform. It is thus clear that 
some other power than the press occasioned the events of 
the 1 3th of March, namely, a sense of increasing oppression, 
which caused a terrible reaction. Can it be thought that 
the dealers in the public funds were enticed by the syren 
voices of the public press ? We well know, and have al- 
' ready pointed out the authors of the 13th of March ; we 
well know who would have made cats'-paws of the brave 
students, and it is now provoking to them, that the students, 
and the people who joined them, will themselves eat the 
chestnuts which they have snatched from the flames. The 
lower Austrian Estates, wished to retrieve the honour which 
the bureaucracy have lost," &c. 

It were well to compare with the above passage from a 
highly radical pen, another which is the production of a 
very eminent statesman, who differs wholly in opinion from 
the contributors to the above mentioned gazette, — -Count 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 159 

Montecueuli, who, before the month of March, filled the 
office of provincial marshal at the head of the Lower Austrian 
Estates, expresses himself as follows, in a memorandum ad- 
dressed to the high assembly of the empire (page 13), dated 
Mitterau, July 5, 1848, which he afterwards published : — 

" It was, in truth, no easy task, and demanded in many 
instances no small degree of self-denial, properly to represent 
and to protect the interests of the people, when they were 
not in unison with the measures of the government ; but in 
this conflict I have never shrunk from representing such 
interests, and defending with zeal the welfare of those who 
were incapable of protecting themselves. I can appeal 
boldly to the whole of my past career, and to the testimony 
of those who have watched my conduct as captain of a 
district, as privy councillor, as vice-president, and, above all, 
as provincial marshal for two years, and who have had 
an opportunity of knowing me fully. All Vienna witnessed 
my conduct in the days of March, which brought the people 
of Austria to the age of majority, and I have received the 
most honourable acknowledgment of my exertions." 

A glance at the measures which the Lower Austrian 
Estates had prepared for the Diet on the 13th of March, 
makes us further acquainted with the publication of certain 
proceedings which they had drawn up for that Diet. We 
annex a passage from the draft of a petition for freedom 
of the press, which appeared in the Austrian Imperial Vienna 
Gazette of the 22nd of March, JSTo. 82 :— 

" Your Majesty ! Your Austrians are a true people, who 
have proved their truth, and are worthy of your love and of 
your confidence. The more bitterly, therefore, must it af- 
fect them and the deeper must be their sorrow, that they are 
not fully blessed with this confidence. We, your majesty's 
most truly obedient Estates, fully acquainted with the wishes, 



160 GENESIS OF THE 

and knowing the wants of the people amongst whom we 
live, whose interests we share, venture, without hesitation, to 
lay this declaration before the steps of your throne : that 
your subjects, in the measures which have been adopted by 
your government for the careful supervision of their actions. 
even when they are directed to the promotion of public un- 
dertakings, in the constant control that is exercised over the 
management of their affairs, in the narrow bounds within 
which their every action is confined, but, above all, in the 
prohibition of an active interchange of thought, by the exis- 
tence of an oppressive censorship, find cause for an expression 
of their mistrust, which should never subsist between your 
throne and the hearts of your people." 

Such words, worthy of a tribune of the people, proceed- 
ing from the mouth of the Lower Austrian Estates, in con- 
junction with those confessions of a democrat, and those ad- 
missions of one who enjoyed the confidence of the government 
previous to March, oblige us to consider the overthrow of that 
government as the effect of two causes, entirely dissimilar in 
their nature, but which worked together upon this occasion. 
Against such a united opposition, no resistance, founded upon 
the maxims of paternal authority, could have proved effec- 
tual. A result, which could no longer be avoided, happened on 
the 13th, 14th, and 15th of March. Whether bayonets and 
cannon could have deferred the result must remain doubtful; 
that they could not prevent what was inevitable, is certain.*-* 

* The party, which in the three remarkable days of March, by coni- 
"bining indefatigable activity with crafty circumspection, accomplished 
the overthrow of the system of government, evinces displeasure at the 
representation which is given in " the Genesis" of its proceedings, and tries 
to weaken that representation by contrasting it with the description of 
the state of government before March, by which it has been shown in 
the " Genesis" that the government was destitute of all power to withstand 
the revolution. The author is accused of duplicity, and doubts are even 
raised whether those two representations emanate from one and the same 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 161 

The revolution ought to have ended with the decree of 
the loth of March. Had such been the case, it would have 
been invested with the milder character of a reform : but 
unfortunately it happened otherwise. The system of govern- 
ment was broken up. The government machine, as we have 
described it wixh a perfect regard to truth, could work but 
imperfectly even under a tranquil order of things. The me- 
chanism was incapable of resisting the destructive blows of 
modern days. The creaking wheels revolved lazily, and 
their motion was uncertain, unequal, and difficult. The 
bulwark, whose firm security was believed capable of pro- 
tecting Austria from the billows that foamed from the west, 
had been overthrown. The tide rushed in, and as the breach 
was not repaired, nor the waters carried off by a powerful 
and skilful hand, the wall crumbled daily more and more, 
and the raging element scattered destruction around. 

The task of the Genesis should here conclude. It would be 
foreign to its object and would be a vain task to pursue the re- 
volution through its various phases. We should have to sketch 
a picture of popular arrogance unrestrained, of domineering 
civic pride, of presumption, selfishness, knavery, ambition, 
sophistry, and weakness with all its consequences, — fickleness, 
hypocrisy, helplessness, treachery, lies, and deceit ; and lastly, 
the violation of right, bloodshed, and civil war, the prevention 
of which was the noble object which the interference of the 

author. We shall not advance any polemical arguments on this occa- 
sion, but merely ask a question. 

If, in describing the causes of a destructive conflagration, attention 
has been first called to the decayed condition of the building and its 
liability to take fire, then the accumulation of combustible materials 
within and without has been described, and the neglect of applying 
any remedy has been exposed : if, thereupon, the originator of the con- 
flagration, who either maliciously or carelessly threw burning coals 
among the combustible materials is pointed out, can the narrator 
be accused, with any justice, of duplicity and self-contradiction in so 
doing ? 

M 



162 GENESIS OF THE 

emperor contemplated in the days of March, — an object which, 
unfortunately for the people of Austria, was not attained. We 
must content ourselves, therefore, with casting a glance upon 
those mistakes and errors which produced such disastrous 
consequences, which prevented the revolution of March from 
being arrested in its progress, and forbade us from entering 
upon the paths of reform, as should have been the case. 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 16$ 



CHAPTER Y. 

THE SECOND HALF OF THE MONTH OF MARCH, 1848. 

The Austrian statesman, who at the close of the day which 
witnessed the birth of a constitutional Austria, should have 
abandoned his mind to serious political reflections, must have 
felt deeply perplexed in anticipating the effect which the 
late occurrences would necessarily produce in the interior 
of the monarchy. He would have felt no disturbance at the 
thought, that in future the legislative power would no longer 
exclusively rest in the hands of the emperor, but he would have 
been startled at the reflection that the latter must henceforth 
share his power with the people ; and he would, above all 
things, have felt dismayed at contemplating, on the one hand, 
that course of measures which had occasioned the determina- 
tion of the emperor, which was to be attributed to an irregular 
arming of the people and the sudden release of a licentious 
press from all restraint, and at observing, on the other 
hand, the perilous example of countless offences being 
passed over without any judicial prosecution, and although 
stigmatized by the law as crimes, exalted, by their suc- 
cessful issue, to the rank of civic virtues. 

It should have been an object of primary solicitude with the 
government to prevent elsewhere an imitation of the example 
which had been set at Vienna, of a promiscuous distribution 
of arms to the people. And in fact the provincial chiefs were 
actually admonished by the emperor, not to permit the sudden 
establishment of a national guard in the provincial towns. 

M 2 



164 GENESIS OF THE 

Although, as it is asserted, this order was circulated as exten- 
sively as possible by means of the telegraph, yet immediately 
after the first correct intelligence had been received of the arm- 
ing of the students and citizens of Vienna on the 13th of March, 
the very same thing took place in most of the provincial capi- 
tals, though the same reasons did not exist, namely, the 
necessity of providing protection against bands of robbers 
and murderers. This suffices to prove the weakness of the 
executive government. 

It was no less important to put a stop to the abuses of 
the press by means of a legislative enactment, which during 
the existence of the censorship was wholly unnecessary. The 
proper authorities, therefore, received directions, immediately 
after the removal of the censorship, to prepare without delay 
the plan of such an enactment. But, in order to prevent the 
weapons of the press, which were wielded in a thousand 
places, from becoming obnoxious to the sovereign, to the state, 
to religion, and to social order, during the time which must 
necessarily elapse in planning, considering, sanctioning, and 
introducing a system for the regulation of the press, resem- 
bling the form already adopted in other German states, the 
emperor, on the 1 7th of March, forwarded a cabinet order to 
the president of the United Court-Chancery, in which he pre- 
scribed to the latter the course to be pursued. He arranged 
a temporary scheme for dealing with offences of the press, in 
conformity with the general penal code, a plan probably ar- 
ranged by lawyers of liberal sentiments ; and it was further 
ordered that the rules should be immediately communicated 
to the provincial chiefs by means of circulars, that they might 
serve as models to the authorities in their official duties, till 
the publication of a legislative enactment. This scheme 
consisted of six short paragraphs, the first of which defined 
the nature of an abuse of the press, grounded on the 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 165 

maxims of justice. The second declared, with precision, the 
individuals responsible for such abuses. The third appointed 
the tribunal to take cognizance of such abuses. The fourth 
pointed out the cases in which a prosecuted publication or 
picture should be forfeited. The fifth subjected the punish- 
ment of offences of the press to the enactments of the 
first and second part of the penal code. And finally, the 
sixth decreed the further application of those enactments 
against those who should in any manner circulate the pub- 
lications and pictures described in the first section. "With- 
out doubt, this short and clear plan for subjecting offences 
of the press to the penal code, in conformity, as it was, 
with public opinion in many parts of Germany, would have 
provided sufficient protection to the government, when the 
censorship was first removed ; but the imperial cabinet order 
was not obeyed, the scheme was not circulated, and the press 
remained for many months free from all restraint. To 
account for this inattention to so important a command of 
the emperor, at once surprising and deplorable, we must 
remember that on the 17th of March the emperor, according 
to an announcement in the Vienna Gazette of the 18th, had 
determined to form a ministry charged with the introduction 
and completion of the measures promised in the decree of the 
15th of March. In consequence of this resolution the High 
Chancellor retired from public life, and the person who 
provisionally assumed his post, and who, some days after- 
wards, was nominated Minister of the Interior, con- 
sidered it better to lay aside the imperial decree, and to 
propose hastily a more detailed enactment respecting the 
press, after the model of the one existing in Baden, and 
more complicated in its application, but which enactment, 
after it had been sanctioned by the emperor, he pronounced 
to be wholly inadequate, upon the suggestion of those whose 



166 GENESIS OF THE 

excesses it was intended to control. In the middle of the 
month of May he published another plan ; which, as it 
was intended to be connected with the jury system, could 
not be put into operation for a considerable time. Abuses of 
the press were the inevitable result of the state of excite- 
ment, daring hatred, and suspicion that then existed, arising 
from the imprudence or ignorance which incautiously in- 
trusted the freedom of the press, that resembled Pandora's 
box, to the hands of thoughtless or criminal individuals. So 
great was the indifference of the minister, that, forgetful of 
the old maxim, which teaches that the press, when it inflicts 
wounds, should be compelled to heal them, he occupied him- 
self in establishing a ministerial paper and circulating talented 
and loyal pamphlets to neutralize the poison by means of anti- 
dotes. And now arose the strange confusion of ideas between 
the liberty to produce an article and the license of compelling 
its consumption. Since the reign of Joseph II. there was 
full liberty to produce many articles, linen yarn for instance, 
but it never occurred to the imagination of any one that in 
order to indulge their own caprice in forcing the consump- 
tion of their own goods, the weavers might lawfully fill the 
streets with criers of their wares, commissioned to force 
them on the passers-by, as was the case in Vienna with the 
products of the free press, till the town was declared in a 
state of siege. This gave rise to a low street-literature, 
which for infamy of character actually surpassed that of 
Paris in the worst periods of the French revolution, and 
circulated most dangerous poison for the popular mind. 

It was farther an object of the greatest importance to re- 
move from the minds of a people not yet familiar with the idea 
of a constitution, the erroneous notion that the latter was to 
have the effect of nullifying the operation of all previously- 
existing laws. For this purpose the emperor at once adopted 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 167 

proper measures. So early as the 1 9th of March an imperial 
decree was announced, by which, in consideration of the press- 
ing necessity that public business should be once more re- 
sumed, and with a view to place the government in a condition 
to satisfy the demands of the present and of the future, it was 
commanded, " That all official authorities should strictly 
maintain the existing laws and ordinances, so far as they 
were not legally repealed, as was the case with the laws of 
the censorship, by the patent of the 15th of March ; and his 
majesty expected, moreover, from his loyal and intelligent 
subjects, that they would not only obey the same, but would 
each in his own special capacity support, to the best of his 
ability, the exertions of the public authorities." 

These orders of the cabinet prove, that in the imperial 
council attention was paid to those points which most 
demanded it, during the change that was gradually 
taking place in the Austrian monarchy. But everything 
depended on the careful and vigorous execution of what 
was commanded. It is evident that under the new circum- 
stances which had arisen, no such result could be expected 
from the old and rusty state-machine, the defects of which 
have already been described to our readers. For this reason, 
on the 17th of March, the formation of the ministry before 
mentioned was resolved on by the emperor. The ministerial 
council was to consist of the minister of the imperial house 
and of foreign affairs, the minister of the interior, the 
minister of justice, the minister of finances, and the minister 
of war. The ministerial council was to be presided over by 
a president appointed by the emperor. Persons in commu- 
nication with the cabinet assert, that at the same time 
doubts were removed from the mind of Archduke Louis, 
who up to that time had always assisted the emperor, 
whether his former appointment was compatible with the 



168 GENESIS OF THE 

new order of things, and tlri^ was done under a promise that 
he would resign Iris new post, should such a step be con- 
sidered advisable. But it was the general opinion of the 
cabinet, that during the period of transition from absolutism 
to a constitutional form of government, as the new system 
was not capable of complete application, — that is, until the 
deputies of the Estates were assembled from the provinces to 
aid the emperor in establishing the proposed constitution, 
there would be no objection to preserve near his person the 
man who enjoyed his confidence, who with unexampled 
self-denial had ever proved the support of the crown in its 
most difficult emergencies, without being tainted by an 
ambitious or corrupt tendency. The deep knowledge of 
men and things, the penetrating look, the invariable tran- 
quillity and self-possession, the indefatigable industry, and 
the strong love of truth which marked the Archduke Louis, 
of whom it might truly be said, that though he was often 
silent, yet he never spoke an untruth, were qualities which 
made his adherence to Iris post indispensable for the welfare 
of the state ; at least until the new constitution, which 
was determined upon, should come into practical operation, 
and until the personal assistance which he had afforded to 
his sovereign could be supplied by a ministry chosen by a 
parliamentary majority, to whom, in pursuance of a contem- 
plated enactment, that ministry should be responsible. 

In yielding to this wish, the Archduke Louis, in accor- 
dance with general report, declared that he had promised the 
late Emperor Francis to pursue Iris system and maxims of 
government unchanged, and to undertake no duty which 
should entail upon him the necessity of opposing proper 
reforms in the state, and thus to evince his readiness sincerely 
to promote those changes in Austria which circumstances had 
Tendered inevitable. In our opinion, much evil would have 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 169 

been avoided if, after the lapse of fourteen days, distrust and 
deception, in conjunction with popular effrontery, had not ren- 
dered this noble resolution vain, since the establishment of the 
ministerial council had remedied that evil in the central con- 
duct of state affairs, which had rendered the procrastination of 
the Archduke Louis, in forming his resolutions, an object of 
censirce. His experience, his character, and his rank, were 
sufficient to prevent indecision, inconsistency, and mistakes, 
even in measures which required promptness of decision. 

The names of the new ministry were published on March 
the 21st. In the mean time the functions of president were 
provisionally discharged by Count Kolowrath. Count Ficquel- 
niont was appointed minister of the imperial house and of 
foreign affairs ; Baron Yon Pillersdorf was named minister of 
the interior ; Count Taafe, minister of justice ; Baron Yon 
Kiibeck, minister of finance. The emperor delayed, for the 
present, the nomination of the minister of war. His choice 
had fallen upon men who had already been engaged in the 
same departments of business. During a state of transition 
this was unavoidably necessary, to prevent utter confusion in 
the discharge of business. There was discord in the term 
" provisional " as applied to the ministerial president, for the 
president is the soul of the ministerial council ; upon him 
is the difficult duty of holding in check the centrifugal ten- 
dency of each minister, and of directing their united efforts 
to one common point, namely, the welfare of the state. At 
that critical moment no one was better adapted for this 
purpose than Count Kolowrath, as well on account of the 
high and influential office he had filled in the state for 
twenty-two years, as on account of his rare fortune in enjoy- 
ing the confidence of the emperor and the favour of the re- 
formers. The word " provisional," therefore, left room for 
doubting whether he would continue to discharge the difficult 



170 GENESIS OF THE 

duty of regulating the transition from absolutism to a con- 
stitution. As it turned out, after a fortnight, the Vienna 
Gazette announced that, for his health and repose, he had 
resolved to retire for a time from public business, and had 
actually ceded the presidency of the ministerial council to 
Count Ficquelmont. But this was also a temporary mea- 
sure. 

Next to the minister-president, the minister of the inte- 
rior was the most important personage at that period of 
commotion and change. Baron Pillersdorf seemed the fittest 
person to fill this station in that moment of distrust in the 
government, — renowned as he was for the clearness of his 
understanding, in addition to being an attractive speaker, 
a decided friend of reform, an opponent of the late Metter- 
nich system, as it was termed, and enjoying the confidence 
of the reformers, though not of the Conservative body. 
The former deplored the small degree of influence he had 
hitherto possessed in the conduct of affairs, although in the 
business of the interior he had for many years assisted the 
infirm high chancellor. On account of his mature age and his 
gradual elevation in the service of the state, the government 
had reason to hope that he would employ his credit, as well 
as his remarkable talents, in effecting a quiet and deliberate, 
but not an Utopian and revolutionary, change in the system of 
the state. How far this hope was fulfilled we may learn 
from an account of the events in Austria down to the period 
of Pillersdorf 's resignation — a chronicle which it is no part 
of our task to write. We shall not inquire whether the 
evil results of the dictatorship which he gradually assumed 
in the ministry, contrary to the original intention of the 
emperor, were to be ascribed to his principles, or his errors, 
or his weakness of character, or whether they arose from acci- 
dental causes. We deem it enough to repeat the joke with 



DEVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 171 

which, he was ridiculed in Yienna in 1842, when he filled 
the office of court chancellor, as assistant to the chief chan- 
cellor, a joke which subsequently acquired a significant im- 
portance. The people of Yienna said that the chief chancel- 
lor was the lantern and Baron Pillersdorf the light. This 
witticism afterwards verified itself in a manner not then 
foreseen. For no sooner was the light separated from the 
lantern, than, blown about by the wind upon all sides, it 
set fire to whatever it touched, and might have occasioned a 
destructive conflagration, if it had not been luckily extin- 
guished by a gust of wind, and gradually reduced to an ex- 
piring ember. 

The minister of finance, Baron Kiibeck, would have been 
the man to direct the course of the government at the 
commencement of it's constitutional existence in a regular 
channel, on account of his cool penetration, his great know- 
ledge and experience, and his firmness of character. He 
stood very high in public opinion, and had not attained 
his position by being a member of the aristocracy, but 
was promoted to the ranks of the latter body on account of 
his services, which secured for him the confidence of the 
people. But ill-health obliged him to abandon his ministe- 
rial office. The other ministers were active men of business, 
as was also his successor, Baron Yon Kraus, who had ac- 
cepted the portfolio of the finances, which, as already stated, 
had been previously offered to and refused by Count Sta- 
dion, the governor of Galicia. Such likewise was the Field 
Marshal Lieutenant Zanini, who had in the interim been 
appointed minister of war ; and the Baron Yon Sommaruga, 
to whom, in the subsequent ministry, was intrusted the 
department of public education. But these persons, by virtue 
of their office, could only exercise a subordinate direct influ- 
ence over the affairs of the ministry, and did not possess 



172 GENESIS OF THE 

those qualities which would have secured for Baron Klibeck 
an influence of an indirect nature. It happened, therefore, 
that Baron Pillersdorf — who at first managed the interior 
department in conjunction with the two provisional presi- 
dents, Kolo wrath and Ficquelmont, after the secession of the 
former and the expulsion of the latter by the audacity of 
the students and the mob — remained alone at the head of 
affairs. For, after Count Taafe was driven from the ministry, 
which was effected, however, with less scandal than had 
happened to Count Ficquelmont, the duties of provisional 
president were discharged by Baron Pillersdorf as senior 
minister in rank. 

There were three principal errors which misled the minis- 
try immediately after its formation. 

The first consisted in the mistaken idea that when the 
emperor had expressed his determination to establish a con- 
stitution, a constitutional regime was then actually com- 
menced. 

The second consisted in the recognition of an inefficient 
ministerial responsibility in respect of a representative 
system not yet set on foot. 

The third and last consisted in the optimist notion that 
an excited and unbridled people, in grateful acknowledgment 
of the freedom bestowed upon them by their ruler, would 
never exceed the limits of justice without requiring any 
measures of prevention. 

The first of these errors occasioned the cessation of those 
temporary enactments which were in force up to July 3rd, 
according to which the representatives of the several pro- 
vinces were to assemble in Vienna, and for which period of 
transition the general ministry should have established a firm 
system of restraint. Contradiction and inconsistency in the 
measures of particular ministers, and the usurpation of that 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 173 

control over the ministers which properly belonged only to 
the legal representatives of the people, but which was assumed 
by certain temporary societies claiming to act in such a cha- 
racter, were the lamentable consequence. In this period of 
transition the ministry in the first place yielded to the in- 
fluence of the Vienna Committee of Safety and to the Central 
Committee of the National Guard, which held its sittings in 
the hall of the university, and at a later period to the United 
Committee of the Citizens of Vienna, the National Guard, 
and the Academic Legion, just as if they had been the repre- 
sentatives of all the nations of the Austrian empire, by which 
means these revolutionary local associations obtained a 
despotic influence over the entire monarchy. 

The emancipation of the ministers from the superinten- 
dence of the emperor (by substituting other advisers, who were 
intrusted with no portfolio) was the result of the second 
error, of which the minister Pillersdorf cleverly took advan- 
tage, in order to remove the State Council (in place of intro- 
ducing proper changes therein), to abolish the State Confer- 
ence, to remove the Archduke Louis from the presence of 
the emperor, and to make it impossible for the latter to hear 
any other voice than the minister's, by rendering all those 
whom the emperor wished to consult confidentially victims of 
popular hatred, under the designation of a "Camarilla." But 
since the minister, who, under the delusion of his own 
responsibility to the nation, prescribed laws for the emperor, 
himself obeyed the dictates of a local association in Vienna, 
the capital groaned under a tyranny whereof history affords 
few examples. 

The consequence of the third error was the removal of the 
police authorities, and the abolition of the very name of the 
police (an institution which even in republican France was 
allowed to continue both practically and nominally) ; the un- 



174 GENESIS OF THE 

seasonable promulgation of a species of Habeas Corpus Act, 
by a notice from the minister Pillersdorf, dated the 28th of 
March, and addressed to all the provincial authorities, which 
had the effect of impairing their efficiency in cases where 
the public peace and order were disturbed ; the diminution 
of the number and strength of the military power in the 
capital ; the silent permission to form associations, a privilege 
not mentioned in the patent of March 15th, and the omission 
to make any regulations for their control ; the impunity en- 
joyed by the public disturbers of the peace, according to 
which cats'-music and rioting became the order of the day ; 
and, finally, the intimidation and abandonment of all the effi- 
cient officers of government, of which two examples may be 
here adduced as illustrations. The first occurred in the case 
of Martinez, the president of the Yienna Committee of Safety, 
who was forced to resign his post in consequence of having 
driven away the notorious agitator, Schutte, though this step 
is said to have been taken with the connivance of the minister. 
The second happened in May, 1848, with relation to the Count 
Montecuculi, of which the memorandum already alluded to 
will afford an explanation. According to its tenor, he had, in 
his capacity of president of the administration of Lower Aus- 
tria, at the request of the minister, Baron Pillersdorij prepared 
the order of the 25th of May, which had been determined on 
by the Ministerial Council, respecting the dissolution and dis- 
arming of the Yienna Academical Legion, but he was after- 
wards abandoned by the same minister, or rather given up 
as a prey to the popular frenzy, from which he was only 
saved by his immediate flight. 

A ministry constructed on such erroneous principles must 
have been incompetent to resist a revolution, even of a less 
complicated character. It was utterly incapable of proving 
a match for that which had broken out in Austria, in which 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 175 

difficulties were to be encountered that had never previously- 
arisen. 

These difficulties lay partly in the tendency of the popular 
discontent, and partly in the position of the ministry, in 
relation to the united monarchy. Two revolutions in France 
had for their object and result the destruction of the throne 
and the establishment of a republic ; but the people by whom 
they were occasioned, desired the continuance of a united 
French nation. The Austrian revolution did not seek the 
destruction of the monarchy (at least in the intention of the 
majority of its originators), but only the diminution of its pri- 
vileges. There were, however, four separate races, which, in 
conjunction with this common object, sought to realize their 
own separate interests. They were the Germans, the Sla- 
vonians, the Magyars, and the Italians, though the last con- 
templated an absolute severance from the empire. German 
Austria was content to belong to Austria ; Slavonian Aus- 
tria desired a government separate from that of Germany ; 
Hungary sought to establish her independence, and only 
to submit to the Austrian emperor as her king : Italian 
Austria threw herself into the arms of the other Italians, 
with imprecations of "death and destruction to the fo- 
reigner." Each of these countries asserted with equal vigour 
its own national claims, but was hostile to the others who 
did the like. Hence arose a contest of a two-fold charac- 
ter, against the sovereign and against one another. No 
previous revolution had afforded an example of similar dif- 
ferences. 

In France one and the same ministry was effective through- 
out all parts of the country. But the influence of the March 
ministry of Vienna was confined to only half the kingdom : 
those parts of the monarchy which belonged to Hungary 
refused to acknowledge its authority, and arrayed themselves 



176 GENESIS OF THE 

under another ministry, responsible to that country ; and this 
responsibility was not imaginary, but real, since in Hungary 
there existed a system of popular representation, which could 
bring the ministry to account. The Hungarian revolution was 
much better organized than the Austrian, and as far as con- 
cerned the establishment of the principle of popular sove- 
reignty, the former extended to the latter a sister's hand. The 
minister of Vienna was unable, by any effective measures, to 
prevent this union ; for the river Leitha was the Rubicon which 
his power could not pass. This proves the necessity of having 
only one central government for the entire Austrian mo- 
narchy, if the constitutional ruler, placed between two inde- 
pendent ministers, and responsible to two different parliaments 
of equal authority, would avoid the fate of the man who be- 
tween two stools falls to the ground. A hasty glance at the 
exertions which the four nations displayed in the month of 
March, in the infancy of Austrian freedom, to insure a re- 
cognition of their several claims, each without regard to the 
other, will enable us to estimate the magnitude of the diffi- 
culties with which the central administration had to 
contend. 

The Germanistic mania appeared in Vienna as a sort of 
prologue to the drama of the revolution enacted in the Trades 
Union on the 6th of March, when the declaration to the em- 
peror was resolved upon, " that nothing but a firm and cordial 
union of Austria with the common interests of the German 
fatherland could restore their ancient, oft-tried confidence.*' 
No sooner had the glorious days of March destroyed the 
control of the police, than the three German colours adopted 
by the Federal Assembly of the 9th of March were pub- 
licly worn in the form of cockades, scarfs, ribands, and ban- 
ners. The tricoloured flag soon afterwards waved from the 
i;ower of St. Stephen's, and even from the balcony of the 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA, 177 

ancient imperial chancery \ and no sooner had the emperor 
appeared at a window of Ins dwelling to the Academical 
Legion assembled in the outer Burg Square, than Profes- 
sor Endlicher handed him a Kew German banner, that 
he might, by waving it, take part in the general enthusiasm 
for Germany, upon which the congregated multitude burst 
forth into joyful acclamations. Whoever was fortunate 
or unfortunate enough to attract the public notice of 
the inhabitants of Vienna, immediately planted a similar 
banner to wave before his house, whether "ad captandam 
benevolentiam " or " ad redimendam vexam." The very 
name of black and yellow was not only discreditable, but even 
ominous ; black, a mixture of all colours, and gold, the 
colour of the sun, had been already made famous by 
the brave armies of Austria, united with German troops in 
those battles which Austria, for the establishment of Ger- 
man civilization and freedom, had been obliged in former 
times to wage against the Turk, and in latter times against the 
red Phrygian cap which had been imported into France from 
ancient Pome, — and now, alas ! these colours were destined to 
maintain their renown only on condition that the colour of the 
said Phrygian cap should be incorporated with them, against 
which Austrian and German warriors had so often and so 
bravely fought ! — an ominous union of colours, which seemed 
to indicate that young Germany, deserting the principles of 
her brave ancestors, was ready to embrace those tenets of 
the Ped Republic which the latter had ever rejected ! In 
Vienna and in other German localities of the empire, the 
independent feeling of the Austrian was changed into a wish 
to be merged in Germany. The ministry encouraged this 
idea in the delusion of being able to find therein a guarantee 
for the growth and prosperity of the new-bom child of 
constitutional freedom. 

N 



178 GENESIS OF THE 

Contemporaneously with the prevalence of the Gernianistic 
spirit, the Magyaristic mania raised its pretensions. The Hun- 
garian deputation, which had entered Vienna on the loth of 
March and on the following day appeared at the foot of the 
throne, was the bearer of a manifesto adopted by the Hunga- 
rian Diet at the suggestion of Kossuth, addressed to the king, 
winch clearly described the political state of Hungary, and 
demanded the removal of every government-interest unfa- 
vourable to the Magyars. The German Michel, who was 
employed in Yienna, was so benevolent as to give a trium- 
phant reception to the Magyar champions, and to natter their 
leader with a gracious look or a kind word ; but notwith- 
standing his satisfaction at his own acquisitions, and the 
tributes winch were plenteously showered upon him by the 
Magyars in their speeches from the windows of their dwell- 
ings, he experienced the hurniliation of afterwards hearing 
that the tribune of the people, Kossuth, on his return to 
Presburg, in a public speech, ascribed these boasted acquisi- 
tions to the presence of the Magyar deputation, although the 
latter was only in the act of disembarking when the sounds 
of triumph were resounding through the streets of Yienna 
to celebrate the new constitution. The truth is, that the 
reformers of Yienna and Presburg were morally combined 
in those critical days to make an attack on the government 
which, although it emanated from ojDposite quarters, weakened 
its efficiency. This effect must be ascribed to those conces- 
sions, so injurious to the imperial prerogative, which had been 
made to the Magyars on the well-known remonstrance of 
the Presburg Diet ; for if the Austrian Emperor could have 
depended on the ready co-operation of his imperial subjects 
for the protection of the Apostolic King against the attacks 
of the Hungarian Estates, a different answer would have 
been given to the demands of the latter than that which the 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTKIA. 179 

Archduke Stephen brought back to Presburg on the 15th of 
March. In this first answer of the king, however, certain 
important privileges were preserved, and the interests of the 
other parts of the empire in some degree maintained. In 
particular, no permission was therein given to separate the 
command of the Hungarian troops from that of the whole 
imperial army, and the right to establish a separate ministry 
of finance for Hungary was coupled with the condition of pro- 
viding an adequate civil list for the king, a proportionate con- 
tribution to the common treasiuy, the defraying a proper por- 
tion of the national debt, and the support of the royal troops, 
garrisoned within the bounds of Hungary and its dependen- 
cies. But to this very moclerate limitation of their demands, 
which had in view the preservation of the Pragmatic Sanc- 
tion, the Magyars would not consent, but succeeded in the 
month of March in obtaining all those concessions, so inju- 
rious to the country, which are included in the royal decree 
of the 11th of April, 1848, and particularly iu the third article 
of law of the Hungarian Diet for the year 1847 — 1848. 

This article of law, so pregnant with mischief (in the 
second section), places the executive power, with full 
authority, in the hands of the palatine, whenever the 
king shall be absent from the country, and declares the 
existing palatine, the Grand Duke Stephen, to be in- 
violable, whereby the rights of the apostolic king, during 
his residence in his imperial palace elsewhere than in Hun- 
gary, are withdrawn and conferred on his representative. 
The third section makes the efficiency of a royal order 
depend on the co-operation of a responsible Hungarian 
ministry. The fifth section decrees that the seat of the 
Hungarian ministry shall be at Buda-Pesth. The sixth refers 
all matters formerly transacted in the ofiices of the Hungarian 
Court Chancellorship, Court Exchequer, and Lord-Lieutenancy 

N 2 



180 GENESIS OF THE 

at Vienna, particularly such matters as related to military 
affairs, to the defence of the country, and to the finances, 
exclusively to a Hungarian ministry, by which means a 
complete separation was established between the Hungarian 
and the imperial government. The eleventh section con- 
cedes to the palatine the nomination of the minister-presi- 
dent during the absence of the king from the country, only 
reserving to the king a power to approve the appointment. 
The twelfth section, which relates to the appointment of 
the other ministers, binds the king to approve the proposal 
of the president. The inevitable result of these legal reso- 
lutions must have obliged the emperor either to take up 
his residence in Hungary, or to renounce the exercise of 
his royal privileges in that country. In either case the 
victory of the Magyars over the interests of the united 
monarchy was beyond a doubt. 

It is important here to consider whether the imperial 
Austrian cabinet, in considering the address of the Diet 
presented by the Hungarian deputation, foresaw this conse- 
quence, or whether the concessions made to the Magyars 
should be ascribed to some other influence. The answer to 
such a question would be easy to one familiar with the secrets 
of the Austrian cabinet and of the imperial family, if they 
could not be collected from facts published at the time by 
the daily press, or well known as matters of common conver- 
sation. We have already directed the attention of our 
readers to the celebrated manifesto of the Estates with 
relation to the independent administration of Hungary, 
to its temporary postponement, as also to its subsequent 
unanimous adoption by the assembly of Magnates. The 
Presburg Gazette gives a literal account of this consent of the 
Magnates at their sitting of March the 14th (the day when 
the events of Vienna of the 13th became known in Pres- 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 181 

burg). After observing that the appearance of the archduke, 
the imperial palatine, amongst the Magnates on that day had 
occasioned immense applause, the palatine is said to have 
spoken the following words : — 

" High Magnates ! from the postponement of the mani- 
festo which lies before me, and has just been read [alluding 
to the one which upon Kossuth's motion had already been 
adopted by the Estates], I venture to entertain the hope 
that the high Magnates will agree to its entire contents." 
After it had been agreed to by acclamation, the palatine pro- 
ceeded with his speech : 

"In observing that the high Magnates adopt this petition, 
I cannot conceal my wish and my warmest anxiety that this 
Diet may produce successful results. I assure you, at the 
same time, that to this end I shall direct all my personal 
and independent influence, and that I consider it my duty, 
for the purpose of developing our constitution, to go with 
you hand in hand in that path which the estimable assembly 
of the Estates has pursued. But I recognize only one 
means for the attainment of this object, namely, a thorough 
harmony and union in these difficult times — an end to which 
I invite the high Magnates, with the fullest confidence, on 
the present occasion." 

In what manner the palatine fulfilled his promise of 
directing his influence to give effect to that mischievous re- 
solution of the Diet the Hungarian papers afterwards 
informed us, by announcing that he had gone so far as to 
declare his determination of renouncing the office of palatine, 
if the royal sanction should be withheld. There is no room 
for doubting the perfect correctness of this newspaper an- 
nouncement, at least in the opinion of the most intelligent 
persons in Vienna. Many sagacious Austrians could not find 
in this declaration of the archduke sufficient reason for grant- 



182 GENESIS OF THE 

ing a concession, the consequence whereof might be so injurious 
to the imperial prerogative ; for be the position of any ser- 
vant of the state ever so high and so important, it can never 
be supposed that his services are actually indispensable, for in 
the course of nature we may witness the man who was to-day 
considered indispensable, stretched to-morrow on the bed of 
sickness or consigned to his coffin, in either of which cases a 
substitute must be provided. But it might be whispered to 
such profane doubters, by the initiated, that the matter 
would not be settled by the retirement of the palatine, since 
it might afterwards be expected that he would be elected 
king of Hungary by the Diet. The first view of such a 
spectre as a neighbouring king in Hungary might indeed 
terrify, but when viewed closer, it ought not perhaps to 
appear so formidable. The idea should not have surprised 
the imperial family as a thing wholly unprecedented, for 
they had shortly before bewailed the loss of one of their 
most distinguished members, the conqueror at the Hhine and 
at Aspern (the Archduke Charles), whom in the night 
of November 21st, 1790, upon the outbreak of the first 
French revolution, the rebellious Estates of the Austrian 
Netherlands had, in their congress, nominated as hereditary 
Grand Duke of the Burgundo-Belgian provinces, on condi- 
tion that he would never more incorporate those provinces 
with the monarchy, and that he would always reside within 
their limits. A s this appointment produced no effect on the 
mind or conduct of the Archduke Charles, and did not pre- 
vent him from supporting the imperial throne, it was to be 
hoped that in like manner the noble character of the Arch- 
duke Stephen would render a similar attempt in Hungary 
ineffectual. The designs of treasonable hypocrites were 
thus exposed, the eyes of their deluded friends were opened, 
and thus that extreme distress was avoided which at a sub- 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 183 

sequent period spread over Hungary. A report prevalent 
in the town evinced a presentiment of those events which 
occurred some months afterwards, under far less favourable 
circumstances. The council of the emperor, with relation to 
the affairs of Hungary and Transylvania, was composed of 
the members of the State Conference appointed before March ; 
a voice in this conference is said to have declared aloud that 
rather than yield to the demands of the Hungarian Diet, it 
were better for the king to intrust the protection of his 
crown to the Croats and Slavonians, who, true to him, were 
long weary of the Magyar yoke, and were ready to join the 
brave and loyal troops in Hungary, who, in the preceding 
March, before the promise of a union between Transylvania 
and Hungary, had been strengthened by reinforcements 
from Transylvania. The struggle would not then have 
proved so violent and deadly as that of October. For the 
bold warriors of Hungary had. not yet been led astray from 
their duty to the king by orders proceeding from an Hun- 
garian ministry of war, and would at that time have had to 
contend with enemies destitute both of cannon and of for- 
tresses, with both of which they were provided on the com- 
pletion of the above-mentioned article of law. That advice, 
however, was not responded to, as is proved by the moral 
disheartenment of the government at the events which oc- 
curred, and by the advice which their intimidated or false 
friends, and even the Austrian constitutional ministers, 
offered them not to enter into a contest about the affairs of 
Hungary, particularly as the cunning of the Magyars had 
not failed to insert in the proposition of their Diet an assu- 
rance " to maintain inviolable the preservation of the union 
of the throne and the monarchy, and to have regard to 
the relation which should be maintained with the pro- 
vinces " — an assurance which must either be considered as 



184 GENESIS OF THE 

mere idle words, or else wholly destructive of those conces- 
sions with which they were evidently incompatible. 

Whilst the Austrians who were infected with the Ger- 
manistic mania panted for union, and the Magyars desired 
to preserve merely a nominal connection with Austria, the 
Slavonians in the north and south sought to establish their own 
independence. The Bohemians, in the north, at a meeting 
held in Prague on the 11th of March, in the rooms of the 
Wenzelbad, had agreed to the petition before alluded to, and 
which had the above object in view. On the 20th of 
March it was brought to Vienna by a numerous deputation, 
who were invested with no legal character, but were the 
tools of a club, headed by the innkeeper Faster, under the 
assumed title of the citizens and inhabitants of Prague. 
They succeeded in obtaining a conference with the provi- 
sional minister-president, and with the minister of the 
interior ; in consequence of which an imperial cabinet 
order, dated March 23rd, was directed to Baron Pillersdorf, 
in which an answer was returned to every point of the 
petition. Tins answer was partly in approval : partly it 
alluded to the concessions which had already been made by 
the decree of the 15th of March, and partly promised to ex- 
amine and take into immediate consideration their requests. 
The imperial answer to the complaint made in the fifth section 
of the petition excited the utmost astonishment and wonder. 
It put an end to the Robot system in Bohemia from the 
end of March, 1849, in consideration of a trilling compensa- 
tion. This was a decision extorted from the sovereign upon 
a subject which, by virtue of the decree of the 15th of 
March, should have been submitted to the consideration of a 
provincial parliament, to be summoned immediately, or else 
to an assembly of deputies from all the provincial Estates, 
which should be convoked at latest on July 3rd ; but it 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 185 

should never have been conceded in an extemporaneous 
manner to a deputation composed of the inhabitants and 
citizens of Prague. This concession to a deputation, fur- 
nished with no legal title, and composed of a motley crew, 
emanating from a public-house in Prague, exposed the 
weakness of the new ministry, and gave reason to fear that 
new associations would obtain a like favourable hearing, and 
would claim a similar attention to their wishes (either with 
or without a riot), an apprehension which was soon after- 
wards actually realized in Vienna. The ministry openly con- 
fessed that it wanted the courage and the will to execute the 
decisions of the patent of the loth of March with dignity and 
firmness, but it was ready to purchase momentary repose by 
the abandonment of those decisions. But in this expectation 
it was grievously deceived, for, though Paster and his adhe- 
rents were satisfied with the audacity displayed by them in 
Vienna, their feelings of satisfaction did not extend to the 
inhabitants of Prague. On the return of the deputies of 
the Wenzelbad to Prague, a burst of dissatisfaction, excited 
by the students, arose at what had been achieved. It was 
pronounced insufficient, as it was wholly silent on those points 
calculated to satisfy the spiritual interests of the Bohemian 
nation. The cause of this unfavourable result of minis- 
terial weakness lay in the fact that, at the meeting at the 
Wenzelbad on March the 11th, some members of the univer- 
sity of Prague maintained that the claims of the intelligent 
classes were not sufficiently represented ; thereupon a 
meeting of the heads of the university was appointed for the 
15th of March, to consider the nature of those claims. 
Paster and his dependants did not deem it prudent to 
await the decision of this meeting, or to take part in the 
petition, but hurried to Vienna with the one adopted on 
March the 11th. The students of Prague, on their side, 



186 GENESIS OF THE 

were anxious to emulate the inhabitants of Vienna in activity 
and zeal. They had forwarded them an address, which was 
published by the newspapers, in which they had expressed 
their feelings of admiration and gratitude to them, and they 
therefore transmitted to the foot of the throne the petition 
adopted by the university on March the loth. In conjunc- 
tion with some adherents of the Wenzelbad party, who had 
remained behind in Prague, and were dissatisfied with the 
success which had attended Faster and his followers in 
Vienna, they excited a considerable disturbance on the 
return of the deputation, the consequence of which was, the 
transmission of a second petition to the government, which 
had been agreed to in Prague on March 29th, and in which 
those demands were repeated which had not been previously 
granted. Threats and abuse were employed against those 
members of the cabinet whose sentiments were considered 
doubtful. The ministry condescended to treat with the 
second deputation from Bohemia. The political importance 
of the club of the Wenzelbad in Prague was increased by 
their success. When, on the return of their first deputa- 
tion, they announced to the Bohemian people that the 
Robot system was abolished, this news secured the popular 
sympathies, and gave them that degree of influence which, 
two months later, induced the populace to take part in the 
insurrection that broke out in Prague. 

The north Slavonians of Poland, from the remembrance 
of the evil fate which had attended their hoisting the war- 
banner in 1846, thought it imprudent to rekindle the flames 
of revolution at home. They resolved, therefore, to remain 
satisfied with providing, in the first place, that the fire should 
be kept alive beneath the ashes, whilst they applied them- 
selves to the task of stirring and spreading the flames 
through the territories of Germany, Slavonia, Hungary, and 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 187 

Italy ; in which endeavour they were assisted by thousands 
of emissaries, consisting not only of men, but even of ladies, 
from the very elite of society {crenie cle V elegance). 

The excited feelings of nationality amongst the South Aus- 
trian Slavonians had, in the beginning of March, assumed a 
more decided character. In Agram, an extemporized national 
committee convoked, on March 25th, a national assembly, 
formed from the three united (?) kingdoms of Dalmatia, 
Croatia, and Slavonia, in which it was agreed, that a nu- 
merous national deputation should ascertain and fully state the 
demands which the nation had to lay before the throne. At 
the outset of these demands, a wish was expressed to remain, 
as formerly, under the Hungarian crown. But in comparing 
this wish with the nature of the various claims, stated under 
thirty distinct heads, it will be seen that it was expressed with 
as little pretensions to seriousness as the assurance of the 
Hungarian Diet to preserve intact the union of the crown 
and the monarchy, and at the same time to take into consi- 
deration the relations of Hungary to the hereditary provinces. 
That celebrated saying of Talleyrand, that language has been 
given to man, not for the purpose of expressing his thoughts, 
but rather to conceal them, was here fully exemplified ; for 
whilst their words asserted their desire to continue the union 
between the three kingdoms and Hungary, their thoughts 
were bent upon the complete dissolution of those ties by 
which they were connected. The first point of these demands 
required that the Ban Jelacic, who had been already elected 
by the people, should be appointed captain of the nation, 
with all the accompanying attributes of the office. In the 
2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 15th, 16th, 19th, and 29th 
points, the South Slavonians demanded the convocation of 
their Diet in Agram, on the following 1st of May; the 
incorporation of Dalmatia, and of the military provinces (with 



188 GENESIS OF THE 

respect to their political administration), and such other por- 
tions of their country as by the course of time had become 
united with the Hungarian counties or other portions of 
the Austrian dominions ; national independence ; a separate 
independent ministry, responsible to the Diet of the three 
kingdoms ; the introduction of the national dialect in all the 
legislative departments and seminaries of education ; yearly 
diets, to be held alternately in Agram, Essegg, Zara, and 
Eiume ; the establishment of a national bank ; the resti- 
tution of their national funds and banks to the management 
of their own responsible finance minister, instead of leaving 
them, as hitherto, to be controlled by Hungary ; the swearing 
in of the national troops to the common constitution, to 
fidelity to their king, to the freedom of their nation, and of 
all the free people of the Austrian monarchy, according to the 
principles of humanity ; and lastly, the concession of all offices, 
spiritual and temporal, without exception, to members of the 
united kingdom exclusively. These demands were diametri- 
cally opposite to those of Hungary, having only this one 
point in common, the isolation of the three kingdoms from 
the other parts of the monarchy ; a design clearly indicated 
by the 18th point, which demanded that the national troops 
of each division should remain in their own country, and be 
officered by their own countrymen, commanded in their own 
dialect, and when on foreign service, or on cordon duty^ 
should be provided with pay, food, and clothing ; that foreign 
soldiers should be dismissed from the country, and that the 
border troops in Italy should be allowed to return home. 
In the other points of their demands, the South Slavonian na- 
tions were not behind the other people who were struggling 
for freedom. The most prudent and the wisest step which 
the Austrian government of that stormy period ever took, 
was, that they (in pursuance of the advice of some friendly 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 189 

Croatian nobles, even before the meeting of the national as- 
sembly on March the 29th) anticipated the demand made in 
the first point, and, by an official announcement of the Vienna 
Gazette, on March the 28th, appointed the Baron Jelacic to the 
office of Ban of Croatia ; for whilst, by the exercise of their own 
power, they thus gave to the nation a leader universally beloved 
and esteemed, one truly devoted to the reigning dynasty, and 
having at heart the maintenance of the united monarchy, 
they also adopted the surest means of restraining the exag- 
gerated demands of the people within the bounds of mode- 
ration, by the influence of a person possessed of unlimited 
confidence. How great is the controlling influence possessed 
by a popular ruler, truly devoted to his sovereign, was fully 
exemp]ified by the events of October and November, when 
the Ban Jelacic, at the head of his national troops, fought 
to preserve the unity of the monarchy. By this appoint- 
ment, the most powerful bulwark was opposed to the Magyar 
insurrection. This the chiefs of the Magyar party fully ad- 
mit, and they tried to represent this step of the king as his 
first act of treason against the Hungarian ministry. Thus 
speaks the representative of the Hungarian government, 
Count Ladislaus Teleki, to the French republic, in his mani- 
festo to the civilized people of Europe, in the name of the 
Hungarian ministry (Leipsig, by Keil and Co.), page 21 ; 
and he endeavours to prove his assertion by observing, " that 
the ministry on this occasion were not applied to or consulted, 
and that the king's appointment of the Ban was not confirmed 
by the consent of the ministry." But in this observation the 
learned count has overlooked the fact, that in Hungary and 
its tributary provinces the resolutions of the Diet, which 
had been sanctioned by the king, were only rendered opera- 
tive on the prorogation of the Diet, by the publication of 
such matters as had been agreed to between the crown and 



190 GENESIS OF THE 

the Estates ; that this publication did not take place till the 
11th of April, 1848, by means of a royal decree, and that 
therefore, in the appointment of the Ban of Croatia in the 
month of March, reference was had only to the ancient laws 
and the peculiar statutes that related to the crown lands of 
Hungary [partes adnexce). These, however, neither allude to 
any responsible ministry, nor make the validity of a royal 
decree dependent upon the joint signature of any official. 

With respect to the appointment of the Ban of Croatia, 
they merely prescribe the previous consent of the Palatine, 
which regulation was followed as a matter of course ; for 
when it was proposed to confer the honour of the banship 
on Jelacic, the application of the palatine to the apostolic 
king, and their mutual conference upon this subject, took 
place. In addition to this, the sentiments and character of 
the newly-appointed Ban were sufficiently known to the 
Magnates, to the deputies who composed the parliament of 
1847-48, and to the Hungarian ministry, so as to enable 
them to perceive that if, by this appointment, the govern- 
ment had committed a violation of the established forms, 
complaints upon the subject would have been made im- 
mediately from Presburg, and not have been left till the 
following year, to come from Paris by way of Leipsig. If, 
in the interests of the young Magyar diplomacy, a royal act 
has been adduced in Teleki s manifesto as the first instance 
of treason, against the legality of which not one word was 
uttered by the Magyar Diet, still sitting at Presburg at 
the time of its announcement, it is clear that the first act of 
treason never occurred, and the civilized nations of Europe 
will consequently have reason to doubt the actual occurrence 
of the second, third, and subsequent ones. 

We have now seen how the maxim " L'amour bien con- 
ditional commence par soi-meme" was truly followed out in 



REVOLUTION" IN AUSTRIA. 191 

the days of March by the Germans, the Magyars, and the 
Slavonians, for the purpose of realizing the objects of each na- 
tion, without reference to the others, or regard to the exis- 
tence of their common mother, Austria. The fourth race, the 
Italian, acted upon the same maxim, and sought, by means 
of violence, to attain its long-cherished wish, namely, a sepa- 
ration from the Austrian empire, which had latterly been 
fanned into a flame by the arts of its royal neighbour, and the 
political weakness, imprudence, and inexperience of the head 
of the Catholic Church. There were those in Vienna who 
expected that the granting of such a constitution as had 
been promised by the decree of the 15th of March would 
satisfy the Lombardo- Venetians. They overlooked that the 
attaining of political rights was but a secondary object with 
the Italians, and that the principal point they had in view 
was their liberation from a foreign yoke. 

It was singular enough that these persons did not even 
abandon their error, when the Austrian army ceased to re- 
tain possession of a greater part of its Lorobardo-Venetian 
kingdom than was contained in the triangle formed by the 
citadels of Mantua, Legnano, Peschiera, and Yerona, when 
King Charles Albert reigned in Milan, and the republic of 
St. Mark was actually proclaimed in Vienna, The March 
ministry either must have felt itself much embarrassed in that 
respect by the complaints of the tradesmen of Yienna, who, 
for the sake of their own speculations in goods, money, and 
railway shares, wished to see peace restored with Italy at any 
price, or must have been intimidated by the sense of its own 
weakness, when at the end of March it formed the resolution 
of making an effort to tranquillize Austrian Italy by means of 
plenipotentiary commissioners. The complete failure of such 
an attempt was to be anticipated, for it found an obstacle 
on the one side in the hatred towards the foreigner, and in 



192 GENESIS OF THE 

the first intoxication of victory felt by a nation that was now 
for a moment liberated from the Austrian yoke, and on 
the other side in the wounded honour of the imperial army, 
which was panting to efface the sad recollection that they 
had, in their hasty retreat, abandoned the richest part of 
the empire to Italian disloyalty, treason, and rebellion, if not 
through their own fault, at least in obedience to the dic- 
tates of dire necessity. Under such circumstances, the 
appeal of the pacificators must have proved to the nation 
but an empty echo, and to the army a distasteful sound. The 
ministry might have known this well, since it enjoined the 
commission to organize and regulate provisionally those 
parts of the empire which should be restored by force of 
arms to the Austrian rule, with a declaration of the principle 
that the submission of the people now-a-days, as the political 
world was constituted, could not be maintained, except by 
their own consent (from a conviction of their own advantage). 
From this popular principle, it became the task of the 
court commissioner, in re-organizing the country, not only 
to consider the general wants of the loyally-disposed citizens, 
but also the desires of those who were aiming at na- 
tionality. In. adopting this principle in the reconquered 
Italian provinces, the new government was brought into 
perpetual collision with the views and objects of the mili- 
tary general, and therefore as long as war lasted, it was ren- 
dered impossible. But as no truce occurred, the object of 
the ministry was in this second respect impracticable. The 
statesman who undertook this mission might have fore- 
seen such a difficulty, for he was well acquainted with 
Italy, and the dependence of the government upon 
military authority. It is not our task to inquire why he 
wasted his strength in pursuing an unattainable object. 
"We content ourselves with observing, that when the at- 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 193 

tempt at pacification was resolved upon by the ministry, it 
was known in Vienna that the establishment of a truce was 
intended, and the co-operation of the English cabinet was 
expected to bring the contest to a happy termination. "When 
that purpose was abandoned and that hope frustrated, the 
court commissioner saw that he was no more required, and 
he resigned a mission which at least proclaimed to the world 
the generous and conciliatory intentions of the emperor, 
and the failure of which has at least produced benefit to the 
empire and insured immortal glory to the brave and loyal 
armies of Austria as well as to their general, whose con- 
stancy bade defiance to the frowns of fortune.* 

* The Italian questions of the year 1848, have lately attracted 
greater interest through the communications of the English Secretary of t 
State for Foreign Affairs, and the discussions consequent thereupon, as 
also through the negotiations relative to the new organization of the 
Lombardo- Venetian kingdom. We think it requisite to add to the pre- 
sent edition of "Genesis," under No. 5 of the Appendix, the original 
proclamation of the Aulic commissary to the Italians in the Lombardo- 
Venetian kingdom, which, though ineffectual, explained his mission ; 
we add it, because it expresses the views and the intentions of the 
Austrian cabinet, and because it may serve to prove that the partisans 
of Italian nationality would have been of more service to the Lombardo- 
Venetians by inducing them to accept the proffered hand of reconcilia- 
tion than by nourishing their eagerness for battle. As, however, actions 
alone are the true test of the sincerity of words, we place before our 
readers in No. VI. of Appendix, the copy of a letter from Udine, pub- 
lished in No. 65 of the evening edition of the Wiener Zeitung, of the 6th 
of June, 1848, as supplying proof, founded on facts, that the words of the 
proclamation, had they been listened to, would have been realized. For 
the measures which were taken in Venetian Frioul, immediately after 
its return under the dominion of Austria, must be viewed as a pattern of 
the treatment which the Austrian government then had destined for the 
whole of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom. The Aulic commissary had 
in this affair, not, as it might be supposed, followed the dictates of his 
own feelings, but the ministerial instructions, with the full assent of the 
conqueror of Frioul, Field-marshal Count Nugent, a soldier as intelli- 
gent as he is brave, and whose heart and soul knew how to wreathe a 
branch of olive around his sword. The measures adopted on this occa- 
sion were sanctioned on the part of the ministry, and were to be im- 
mediately applied to all the other parts of the country, which returned 
under the sceptre of the emperor. To support these attempts at reeoH- 





194: GENESIS OF THE 

When we consider the struggles which were carried on by 
the four great national divisions of the empire for indepen- 
dence, and which we ha-ve here hastily sketched in a general 
manner, and also the contemporaneous efforts made in different 
places by corporations and individuals to effect the realiza- 
tion of unripe schemes of freedom and plans of independence ; 
when we compare such powerful and energetic exertions 
with the insignificant resources, both moral and physical, 
which the Austrian ministry could command in the latter 
half of the month of March, we must deeply lament the 
weak and wavering conduct of such a ministry as we have 
described, which was hastily formed of heterogeneous mate- 
rials, and which acted without any preconcerted plan of united 
operation. But we should be unjust indeed if we made this 
circumstance a ground of personal accusation against all 
those men who were summoned by their emperor to take 

ciliation, the Aulic counsellor Von Hummelauer was, in the first days of 
May, despatched on a mission to London, in order to prevail upon the 
Foreign Office there to exercise its influence to promote a peaceful ad- 
justment of the dispute in the Lombardo- Venetian kingdom. In case 
of the acceptance of the proposals, namely, the constitutional govern- 
ment of the kingdom on a national basis, under a prince of the empire, 
with a reservation to Austria of certain sovereign rights, and subject to 
the contribution of ten millions of dollars towards the annual interest of 
the national debt, further steps were to have been immediately taken 
by the pacificator, with the co-operation of diplomatic agents, who would 
have been despatched to him. Count Ficquelmont had already drawn 
up the instructions for Hummelauer. That minister never intended 
the complete separation of any part of the Lombardo- Venetian kingdom 
from the Austrian empire. It was only subsequently to the unsucces- 
ful negotiations in London that his successor, Baron Wessenberg, had 
recourse to the desperate attempt of offering to Count Casati, the chief 
of the provisional government at Milan, through the medium of a con- 
fidential letter forwarded to him in the beginning of June by an impe- 
rial counsellor of legation, the perfect independence of Lombardy, 
provided Lombardy would take upon itself, as the price of peace, a pro- 
portionate part of the Austrian national debt. Count Casati did not 
entertain this offer, inasmuch as he declared to the ministerial envoy, 
that the obligations of the provisional government towards its allies 
prevented it from commencing any negotiations of its own. 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 195 

charge of the vessel of the state, which with weather-beaten 
sails was driven about, the sport of the stormy ocean, the 
greater part of which ministry, moreover, obeyed the call 
from a feeling of duty rather than from their own inclina- 
tion. Like those physicians who at the outbreak of the 
Asiatic cholera treated the new disease according to its out- 
ward symptoms, and only employed medicines which relieved 
the outward appearances, and failed to reach the root of the 
evil, but oftentimes increased it, so these new ministers were 
too inexperienced in the moral epidemic which, in the month 
of March, suddenly attained a furious height in Austria, to 
be able to understand the necessity of applying a bold re- 
medy. They sought by gentle means to assuage the disturb- 
ing symptoms, but the source of the disease was only in- 
creased by such treatment. Thus it happened that in the 
latter half of the month of March the revolutionary epidemic 
was not only not extinguished as one could have wished, but 
was even increased in intensity and fury, and threatened to 
bring the kingdom to a fearful end. Whether, indeed, 
another and a bolder line of conduct, in pursuance of the 
decree of March the 15th, would have produced a different 
and more favourable result, is a problem which we cannot 
resolve with full certainty, because its explanation depends 
upon hypotheses whose realization must ever remain doubt- 
ful. This much, however, is certain, that a more fearful 
result could scarcely have occurred. 



2 



196 GENESIS OF THE 



CHAPTER VI. 

PROM THE MONTH OF MARCH, 1848, TO THE OPENING OF THE 
CONSTITUENT DIET AT VIENNA. 

GrtrizoT, in his work upon Democracy in France, observes, 
that the republican government used every exertion to pre- 
vent the realization of the apprehensions which were con- 
nected with its institution, and then adds the following 
remarks : "Efforts impuisants, qui ralentissent, mais qui 
n'arretent pas le mouvement de l'etat sur une pente funeste. 
Les hommes qui voudraient Tarreter ne prennent pied nulle 
part : a chaque instant, a chaque pas, ils ghssent, ils de- 
scendent : ils sont dans l'omiere revolutionaire, ils se debat- 
tent pour ne pas s'y enfoncer, mais ils ne savent, ou n'osent, 
ou ne peuvent en sortir. Un jour, quand on y regardera 
librement et serieusement, on sera epouvante de tout ce 
qu'ils ont livr6 ou perdu, et du peu d'effet de leur resis- 
tance." These observations of an author so esteemed, and of 
. a statesman so experienced, might be well applied to the 
Austrian government after the month of March. 

In place of "the convocation of deputies from all the 
Provincial Estates, which had been appointed by the Em- 
peror Ferdinand to take place on the 15th of March, 
together with a meeting of representatives from the Central 
Congregations of the Lombardo- Venetian kingdom, with the 
least possible delay, and a more complete representation of 
the citizens, paying full regard to existing provincial consti- 
tutions, for the purpose of considering the form of constitu- 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 197 

tion for the country which had been agreed upon by the 
emperor/" after the lapse of a few months came the destruc- 
tion of all the provincial systems of government ; the adoption 
of a democratic monarchy ; the excesses of a Diet assembled 
for the purpose of framing a constitution, but considering 
itself as sovereign ; the hanging of a minister upon a lamp- 
post ; the scaring away of the emperor from his palace ; the 
bloody defence of the palace against the imperial army ; 
the obstinate civil war in Hungary and Transylvania; the 
abdication of the emperor, the refusal of his immediate suc- 
cessor to succeed to the throne, and the union of Russians 
with the Austrian troops, to contend not so much against a 
nation as against the barbarians of the 19th century, who, 
under the false banner of freedom and a love for the people, 
threatened the destruction of the thrones and civilization of 
Europe. 

Although the first appearance of the ministry appointed 
by the emperor on March 17th, and which commenced its 
proceedings a few days afterwards, and was responsible for 
the completion and perfection of the imperial decree of 
March 15th, was not calculated, as we have already observed, 
to inspire hopes that it would succeed in accomphshing its 
task ; no one, however, could possibly suppose that it would 
completely lose sight of the object for which it was respon- 
sible, and adopt another view diametrically opposite, and 
indeed such conduct was not approved by the majority of 
its members. Unfortunately, the ministry was at the very 
commencement of its career placed by the Minister of the 
Interior upon a steep declivity, and was unable afterwards to 
retain its footing. Without following its down-slidings step 
by step, we ought to recite all the circumstances which, in our 
opinion, contributed in the greatest degree to leave the state, 
whose establishment and foundation upon a constitutional 



198 GENESIS OF THE 

basis was the object of the good emperor, a prey to the 
Utopian schemes of young boyish fanatics, and to the passions 
of a few interested individuals, to loosen the bands of order, 
and to prepare the indescribable evils into which Austria 
was doomed to behold her dreams of happiness converted. 
Amongst the circumstances of this character, we particularly 
distinguish the following : — 

1. The suppression of the provincial law to regulate the 
press, enacted on March 31, 1848, even before its introduc- 
tion, by the influence of the Aula of Vienna and their ad- 
herents. 

2. The destruction of the constitution of the Estates in 
Bohemia, and the concession of a popular representation, 
founded on democratic principles, through the influence of 
the club of the "Wenzelbad in Prague. 

3. The departure from the path pointed out by the decree 
of March 15th, 1848, for establishing a constitution for the 
country, by granting the constitution of April 25th, which 
had been devised by the ministry. 

4. The unpunished assaults of the people of Vienna upon 
the spiritual and temporal authorities, the attacks against 
the privileges of the crown by assailing the new consti- 
tution and by usurping an influence in the appointment of 
a ministry. 

5. The suspension of the constitution granted hj the 
charter of April 25th, 1848, and the nomination of a Diet 
to frame a constitution. 

6. The departure of the emperor from Vienna, abandoning 
the reins of empire to the incapable ministry that remained 
behind. 

7. The irresolution of the ministry in the face of the 
demonstrations of the students of Vienua, the National 
Guards, and the working classes on the 26th of May. 



REVOLUTION IS AUSTRIA. 199 

8. The paralysing of the emperor's independence in Inns- 
bruck, by the appointment of a minister to advise him, who 
was a stranger to the monarchy, and of another who was 
the offspring of the revolution and inexperienced in the 
state. 

9. The fearful attempt of the Czechs at separation in 
Prague, which was suppressed by Prince Windischgratz, not 
by the power of, but in spite of, the inefficiency of the central 
government of Yienna. 

10. The continuance of the city of Yienna under the 
dominion of clubs and demagogues until the assembling of 
the Diet to frame a constitution. 

11. The inactivity of the friends of order at the elections 
for members to serve in the Diet, contrasted with the 
zeal displayed by the advocates of disorder, who were 
favoured not only by the elective laws but by the regulations 
of the ministry. 

12. The appointment of an imperial alter ego at Yienna, 
in addition to the one already in existence at Buda-Pesth. 

13. The transformation of the Diet from an assembly 
convened to deliberate upon a form of constitution into a 
legislative body. 

14. The alteration of the ministry, in obedience to the 
will of a united committee of citizens, National Guards, and 
students in Yienna, at the moment of the meeting of the 
Diet. 

To the circumstances here enumerated many others might 
be added which equally contributed to drag the government, 
after the month of March, to the brink of a precipice ; but, 
for the sake of brevity, we confine ourselves to the catalogue 
above mentioned as the most influential. 

1. On April 1, 1848, the official sheet of the Vienna 
Gazette published a provisional law with relation to the press 



200 GENESIS OF THE 

(of the 31st of March) ; on the 7th of the same month there 
appeared again in the official part of the same Gazette an 
address from the Minister of Justice to the collected presi- 
dents of the Courts of Appeal, who were subordinate to the 
Supreme Court of Justice, which gave instructions as to the 
administration of the new law ; but on the 1 8th of April the 
observation appeared in the same Gazette, that the editor 
relied upon the declaration so repeatedly made by the minis- 
ter Pillersdorf, " that the law with relation to the press was 
not binding, because it had not been published officially 
(through the authorities of the country)." According to 
this announcement, the Minister of the Interior had neglected 
to announce to the authorities of the country who were 
under his control the official notice of a law proclaimed by 
the sovereign, and which had already been published in the 
official sheet of the Vienna Gazette, whilst the Minister of 
Justice circulated instructions to the judicial functionaries 
with regard to its administration. Such a line of conduct 
was not by 1 any means calculated to inspire respect for the 
imperial decrees and confidence in the united co-operation of 
the ministers. But if we only call to mind the notorious 
cause that influenced this course, namely, the terror inspired 
by the auto-da-fe with which the literati and the students of the 
Aula had the daring hardihood to threaten that enactment, 
we must find cause for lamenting that the conduct of the 
minister Pillersdorf, which was utterly destructive of all 
law and order, publicly recognized the supremacy of the 
Aula, which conduct soon weakened the independence of the 
ministry, and degraded it till it became a mere plaything in 
the hands of demagogues at home and abroad. To these 
seditious persons alone must we ascribe the seduction of the 
academic youth, who surrendered themselves to their gui- 
dance, in the conviction that the object of their exertions was 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 201 

at once great and noble. These experienced destructives 
could, in fact, have found no tools more fitted for effecting 
their designs. In England and France the first combatants 
of the Austrian revolution were covered with ridicule ; rush- 
ing (as it was said) from their school-rooms, they undertook 
to play the part of state reformers ; but if we reflect that in 
order to convert the masses of the people to new ideas of 
freedom, a passionate style of eloquence should be employed, 
and that the students at the higher institutions afforded a 
wide field for efforts of this nature, in consequence of their 
connection with parents, relations, friends, boarding-house 
keepers, and many families whose children they were in the 
habit of instructing in elementary knowledge, and that the 
more talented, the more active, and the more sincere a youth is, 
the more easy it will be, in consequence of his inexperience 
in the ways of the world, to excite him to rave enthusiasti- 
cally in support of those rash doctrines which Schiller puts 
into the mouth of his Marquis Posa, and to undertake daring 
deeds, exclaiming with Burger, " that to die for virtue, justice, 
and freedom, is the most sublime courage — is the Redeemer's 
death :" when we remember this, we must admit that the 
grand masters of the revolutionary party could find no plan 
more prudent, nothing better adapted for their purpose, but 
at the same time nothing more detestable, than to excite those 
inexperienced youths — a prey to the impressions of the mo- 
ment — to political fanaticism, in order to use them as apostles 
and emissaries of the revolution. Beguiled as they were, they 
deserve our pity ; but the curse of evil deeds should fall upon 
their seducers, and the reproach of weakness should lie upon 
that ruler of the state who, when the duty of his office 
required him to resist such wickedness, gave way before the 
same. 

2. In the official part of the Vienna Gazette of April 11th, 



202 GENESIS OF THE 

1848, the Minister of the Interior published an imperial 
cabinet order, directed to him on the 8th of the month, in 
which a concession was made of those points of the petition 
which had been previously refused to the deputation of the 
Wenzelbad of Prague, and which proceeded to Vienna, for 
the second time, at the latter end of March. The points 
were these : — Perfect equality in the use of the Bohemian 
dialect with the German in all branches of general adminis- 
tration and of public instruction ; in the place of the meeting 
of the Estates of Bohemia, which were shortly to assemble, a 
proportionate representation of the people, embracing all the 
interests of the country, and formed upon the broadest pos- 
sible basis of elective and representative qualifications, with 
the right to take part in debating and determining all the 
affairs of the country ; the establishment of a responsible cen- 
tral board of officials for the kingdom of Bohemia, in Prague, 
with a wider sphere of operation ; the filling of all public 
offices and judicial posts with persons conversant with both 
languages ; a free, uncontrolled right of petitioning, and 
many other demands of less importance. In the same cabi- 
net order, the representation of the people in the Diet was 
decreed, and the right of voting, both active and passive, was 
regulated. To the previously existing members of the 
Diet, an increased number of members for the towns was 
added ; that is, one member was provided for each town with 
a population of 4,000 inhabitants, two for a population of 
8,000, and for the rest of the people, two members for each 
circle of the vice-regency ; the election was to be direct, and 
every person was qualified who paid taxes, who was twenty-five 
years old, and was not under guardianship, and not stained 
by any degrading offence, forbidden under a penalty by the 
criminal code. Every native was eligible as a representative, 
who had attained his thirtieth year, subject to the excep- 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 203 

tions above enumerated. We believe that this important 
measure was adopted in the Ministerial Council, which the 
official part of the Vienna Gazette of April 2nd announced to 
have been held under the presidency of the provisional minis- 
ter, Count Kolowrat, and in which the decree for the admi- 
nistration of Bohemia was considered and decided. The ap- 
pointment of the Archduke Francis Joseph (now emperor) 
to the lieutenancy of Bohemia, and of Count Leo Thun to 
the office of Governing President, was made on April 6th. If, 
in the preceding conduct of the ministry, the victory of the 
Aula over the executive, with relation to the press enact- 
ments, was apparent, the triumph of the "Wenzelbad Club 
of Prague was evident from the nature of the concessions 
made to the Bohemians. The destruction of the Bohemian 
constitution, for whose maintenance in its original extent the 
Bohemian Estates had spared neither money, nor time, nor 
labour, and had even reminded the king repeatedly of his 
coronation oath, and had threatened an appeal to the German 
Diet, was given up, without hesitation, to the demands of a 
club-deputation ; and in place of that constitution, a new 
order of tilings was established, which threatened to infringe 
on the rights of the throne even more than the old privileges 
of the Estates had done. For, in the active right of voting 
which was given to every tax payer, and in the passive right 
which belonged to him who paid no taxes, the democratic 
principle was admitted : the concession of a responsible cen- 
tral administration for Bohemia, to transact business in its 
capital, paved the way for a separation of that province, after 
the plan which had already succeeded in Hungary : the 
nomination of the heir-apparent to the lieutenancy of Bo- 
hemia would necessarily lead there to the imitation of an 
institution which was quite unsuited to a constitutional king- 
dom, viz., that of the responsible Hungarian palatine ; for 



204 GENESIS OF THE 

it could never be endured that the archduke, who was to suc- 
ceed to the throne, should be made subject to the Bohemian 
Provincial Diet or to the general Imperial Diet. The conces- 
sions to Hungary were at all events made by the legal repre- 
sentatives of the country, and in the solemn manner which be- 
longs to acts of government of such importance. Those to Bo- 
hemia resulted from the pressing demands of a private society, 
clothed with no legal title, and were in the form of a grant 
made on petition. Some ministers of high influence, who 
happened to be in Vienna, and were members of the Bohe- 
mian Estates, and whose names are published by the Vienna 
Gazette of April 10th, as follows — Prince Perdinand Lob- 
kowitz, John Adolphus Schwarzenburg, Vincent Charles 
Auersperg, von Schonburg and Hartenstein, Charles Paar, 
then the Count Eugene, Joromir and Ottokar Czernin, 
Francis Ernest Harrach, Vincent Bubua, and H. Liitzow, — 
presented an address to the emperor, dated April 2nd, which 
set forth the following prayer : — 

" (a) That the claims of the Czechish nationality should be 
placed upon a perfect equality with the German nationality 
in all things, but particularly in public instruction, and in 
the public administration of Bohemia : (b) that for the fu- 
ture, in Bohemia, not only the citizens, but, as far as possible, 
all classes who were possessors of property, and who at pre- 
sent were either not at all, or but inadequately represented, 
should be represented in the most complete manner in the 
Diet, or other national assembly, by means of deputies 
chosen by themselves." 

This address, however, notwithstanding the great respecta- 
bility of the persons who prepared it, could not pass for the 
expression of the wishes of the Bohemian Estates, and was 
therefore only entitled to the weight of a private opinion. 
At all events, it would have been necessary to pass a mea- 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 205 

sure with relation to the decree of March loth, which pro- 
mised " a convocation of all the provincial Estates, with a 
fuller representation of the citizens, paying regard, however, 
to the existing provincial constitutions :" indeed, this should 
have been the first care of a ministry responsible for the ful- 
filment of that decree, and should have been transacted in 
the form usual for so important an act of government, viz., 
by means of an imperial decree, as had been done about the 
same time in Lower Austria, Styria, and Carinthia (on the 
11th of April in the two former countries, and ou the 25th 
in the latter), when a measure of far less importance, viz., 
the abolition of the feudal burdens, was announced by the 
emperor, at the instance of the Estates of the above pro- 
vinces, which was to take effect from the end of the year 
1848, in consideration of a reasonable compensation. But 
that a radical change should be introduced in the Bohemian 
provincial constitution, at the request of the deputies of a 
Prague club, " in order (as the ministry made the emperor 
say) to afford a new proof to his loyal subjects in Prague of 
his patriotic intentions and his solicitude for the welfare of 
Bohemia," displayed a most lamentable proof that the Wen- 
zelbad ruled in Prague, just as the Aula did in Yienna. The 
excessive abuse of this authority subsequently brought upon 
Prague, on the ensuing Whit-monday, and upon Yienna, on 
the 28th of October, the thunder of artillery and a storm of 
bullets. However, the new administration of Bohemia, 
which was forced upon the government, never saw the light ; 
for the archduke, who had been nominated to the lieute- 
nancy, retired, first to the army in Italy, where he remained 
till July 7th, and then to the emperor's family at Innsbruck, 
where he remained till the return of the latter to Yienna, 
without having assumed the office destined for liim. This 
was certainly a prudent course, since it could never have 



206 GENESIS OF THE 

appeared proper for an imperial prince, particularly for the 
heir-apparent to the throne, to take up a position between a 
nation actively engaged in pursuit of its separate interests, 
and a sovereign who had the united welfare of the mo- 
narchy at heart. The example which Hungary so repeatedly 
offered should have restrained the ministry from such a 
course. Moreover, the democratic Bohemian Diet was not 
united. All these measures, therefore, had no other effect 
than to display the weakness of the ministry, and to strengthen 
the desire to abuse it. 

3. The 25th of April was the day on which the decree of 
March 15th was annulled in its most important parts (viz., 
in the regulations for the constitution of the country), by 
those very persons who were responsible for its performance. 
For on that day appeared the charter of a constitution, " with- 
out the co-operation of the deputies from all the provincial 
Estates, who were to be summoned to Vienna in support of 
the constitution." 

We shall not investigate the peculiar properties of this 
bantling, which was born on April 25th, and was carried to 
the grave on May 15th (the bastard offspring of Vienna radi- 
calism and of ministerial vanity) ; such a task would be mere 
waste of time. Respecting its appearance, we may observe, 
that the clubs, which in Vienna tyrannised over the ministry 
of the interior, found it incompatible with their views and their 
impatience, that the constitution which had been determined 
upon by the emperor on March 15th should be constructed 
on the foundations of those provincial institutions which 
were already in existence, with the joint co-operation of the 
former guardians of the old and the dispenser of the new 
franchises, but wished to see a temple of liberty, that should 
by no means narrow their desires, erected on the ruins of all 
the plans which existed previous to the month of March, 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 207 

which, if not of stone, should at least be formed in the mo- 
dern fashion of pasteboard, that could easily be destroyed ; 
and we may further observe, that the minister Pillersdorf, in 
his bygone hours of idleness, had, out of mere whim, already 
constructed such a temple for the Austrian empire. Both 
parties now united to consider the propriety of copying this 
model, which was for the most part made after the plan of the 
constitutional edifices in Belgium and Baden. The adaptation 
of these to the small countries for which they were destined, 
composed as they were of homogeneous elements, by no means 
argued a like capability in them to suit the widely-extended 
Austrian monarchy, which was formed after the fashion of a 
piece of mosaic. The concurrence of the ministerial council in 
this project was not obtained without the opposition of some 
of the members, one of whom, the Minister of Justice, Count 
TaafFe, retired from the ministry, shortly before the appear- 
ance of the chartered constitution, on April 19th. But the 
persuasions of the Minister of the Interior silenced the ob- 
jections of his colleagues in this case, as in others, and his 
work made its appearance with the signatures of all of them 
attached. None of the statesmen who had assisted in the 
compilation of the decree of the 15th of March were then 
present, to defend its principles; Munch and Kubeck had, in 
the course of the month of March retired from business ; 
Windischgratz no longer filled the post which he had occu- 
pied on March 14th, in the conference on the question of the 
constitution ; Hartig was absent on April 1 ; the Archduke 
Louis, who, on the 15th of the same month, was released from 
all share in public business, had been removed, with Pilgram, 
the day previously ; and Kolowrat, on the 19th of April, 
was definitively deprived of the presidency in the ministerial 
council. The Archduke Francis Charles had received orders, 
on April 7th, to aid the emperor in the care of public busi- 



208 GENESIS OF THE 

ness, within the bounds marked out by the rules of the con- 
stitution, and to maintain the power of fully superintending 
the business transacted by the Ministerial Council (by which 
means all direct participation in the same was excluded). 
The appointment of the Archduke Francis Joseph was to 
Prague, but before his departure, according to the Vienna 
Gazette, the consent of the emperor was given that he should 
travel for some days through Tyrol, towards those parts of the 
Lombardo-Venetian kingdom which then attracted general 
attention, in order to have a full view of the preparations 
and means of defence which Field Marshal Radetzky had 
collected, and by means of which, at the head of the coura- 
geous Austrian army, he opposed those agitators and enemies 
of peace, who had entered the country from foreign parts. 
By thus banishing all the advisers of the throne who, on 
March 14th, had counselled the constitutional reconstruction 
of the Austrian monarchy upon the basis of the existing 
provincial governments, and with the co-operation of depu- 
ties from the provincial parliaments, the eloquence of the 
Minister of the Interior might easily succeed in persuading 
the Ministerial Council to abandon the course already chosen, 
and to pursue another, which, in his opinion, was shorter and 
more dignified ; since the reasons which had been adduced 
on the 14th of March for erecting the edifice of the consti- 
tution on those pillars of the state which were still in exis- 
tence, supported as those reasons were by subsequent events, 
ceased to be maintained by any parties.* 

* These remarks of " Genesis " seem to have induced Count FicqueL 
mont to state, in his pamphlet, ei Auf klarungen iiber die Zeit vom 
20 Marz bis zum 4 Mai, 1848," published by Joh. Ambr. Barth, at 
Leipzic, — the motives which determined him to vote for the grant of a 
constitution, "although the wording of the imperial patent of the 15th 
of March, 1848, prevented him from considering himself authorized to 
adopt any other course than that indicated by the patent." He had an 
aversion to any constitution which should be framed by a constituent 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 209 

The birth of the chartered constitution (to which the army 
was called upon to swear allegiance by an order issued on 

assembly, to be convoked in accordance with the political notions pre- 
valent in April, 1848 ; for at that period no other electoral law would 
have been thought admissible for the convocation of the Imperial 
Diet, but that which the Assembly at Frankfort had enforced. He 
also lays stress on the circumstance that in the midst of the various 
causes of profound excitement a demand for the promised constitution 
was unanimously expressed." He lastly reminds us, "that in his 
capacity of minister to the reigning house he had not been able to 
countersign the document which modified the basis of the power and 
the position of the reigning house so long as that document had not 
been sanctioned by the united imperial house," and that consequently, 
in his presence, and under the presidency of the Archduke Francis 
Charles, a conference had been held, at which the Archduke Francis 
Joseph (the present emperor), Archduke Louis, and the remaining 
members of the imperial house then present at Vienna attended. After 
the introduction of a few modifications, which were essential in order to 
put to rest the conscience of the supreme council, a form of the mildest 
tone was adopted, which was more suitable to the times than the men. 
"We feel pleasure in inserting in " Genesis " these remarks of a states- 
man so well known and highly respected by all the cabinets of Europe, 
because they confirm our opinion already given, that the minister- 
president, Count Ficquelmont, the council of ministers, and — as we 
have since learned — the council of the imperial family, merely submitted 
to the dictates of the times in leaving the path traced out on the 15th 
of March, when they accepted the project of a constitution forced upon 
them by the Minister of the Interior. We cannot, however, retract 
our assertion that the grounds which decided the state conference to 
choose that path in the night of the 14th were no longer defended by 
any one in the council of ministers on the occasion of adopting the 
chartered constitution. For although, as Count Ficquelmont tells us, the 
archdukes who had been present at the state conference expressed in the 
family council their opinion respecting Pillersdorf's project of a constitu- 
tion before they quitted Vienna, they voted and acted at that time no 
longer as members of the cabinet, and charged with the government, but 
as agnates of the head of the dynasty. Any opposition on their part, in 
that capacity, to the constitution projected by the Minister of the 
Interior, who was still in possession of the popular favour, and whose 
project had already reached the throne, was at that time of no more 
avail than the opposition of the minister-president. The circumstance, 
also, that the free grant of a constitution was less prejudicial to the 
authority of the sovereign than if it were framed in co-operation with 
the provincial Diet, made the princes of the imperial house lean towards 
the project of the minister Pillersdorf. Though such conclusions were 
-evidently correct, that minister ought still to have carefully weighed 
whether they could at that time find a practical application in Austria. 



210 GENESIS OF THE 

the same day that they renounced their allegiance to their 
colours) was celebrated by joyful displays of all kinds ; as 
well as by a monstrous torchlight procession to the Imperial 
Burg, at which the emperor on the following day expressed 
his gratification in a cabinet letter to the Minister of the 
Interior, the contents of which Baron Pillersdorf published 
on April 27th, in the official part of the Vienna Gazette, tes- 

Pillersdorf, if he had properly solved that question, would have imme- 
diately in March commenced his ministry by preparing the convocation 
of the provincial Diets, in order thus to calm the impatience of those 
who looked forward with eagerness to the promised constitutional 
government of the empire. The patent of the 15th of March had, on 
that very ground, been everywhere received by the majority with 
enthusiasm, because it had granted to the provinces a participation in 
framing the constitution. The radicals, however, whom it did not 
satisfy, were much less likely to be appeased by a chartered constitu- 
tion. The Viennese press, which was ruling everything, had, until the 
first days of April, defended the patent in public opinion. A dispute 
even arose amongst noted literary personages about the honour of its 
authorship. In proof of this, we submit to the reader the reclamations 
of the editor of the Constitutional Gazette of the Danube, which he pub- 
lished in that journal on the 2nd of April, in order to vindicate that 
honour for himself against the popular poet Bauernfeld, who had been 
active during the days of March, and to whom that honour had been 
attributed. To risk, under such circumstances, the free grant of a 
constitution, instead of framing it, as had been decreed by the emperor, 
with the co-operation of provincial deputies, was a hazardous enter- 
prise, for which the minister Pillersdorf alone is responsible, and before 
resorting to which he should have duly considered the l( quid valeant 
humeri." Had he not in March omitted to make the necessary pre 
parations for assembling quickly, and with modifications suitable to the 
times, about twelve provincial diets, he would have had to meet in July, 
on the subject of framing a constitution for the country, those deputies 
only who would have been elected with caution, and in small numbers 
by those diets, instead of being obliged to resign office in the face of 
379 deputies of the imperial Diet, the offspring of confused and stormy 
popular elections, and to leave the joint framing of a constitution, in 
conjunction with so many, and, for the greatest part, such badly- quali- 
fied debaters, to a man of the people, who, after wasting three months 
was likewise compelled to flee from the arena. We therefore are 
pleased to declare that we fully coincide with the pamphlet of Count 
Ficquelmont in all that concerns him personally, yet we do by no means 
deviate, as regards the objective value of the free grant of the con- 
stitution, from the opinion which we have in that respect already 
pronounced. 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 211 

tifying his delight and approbation at the conduct of the 
National Guards ; the several clubs, — viz., the Legal Political 
Reading Club, the Artists' Club, the Men's Singing Club, — 
and ordered that the inhabitants should be informed " that 
he felt in the innermost depths of his heart the great 
honour of being called upon to guide the destinies of such a 
people." 

These gracious words of the emperor by no means failed 
in their effect on the joyful multitude; but they could not 
protect the child, whose birth was then celebrated, against 
the mischievous nature of its parent ; which we have pointed 
out radicalism to have been. In its very nature, as in that 
of the Saturn of heathen antiquity, was implanted the im- 
pulse to devour its own offspring. And such was actually 
the fate of the new-born constitution of May loth. 

4. The Austrian ministry had now abandoned the course 
which it had been directed to follow on its appointment, and 
had chosen another for itself ; but even here it was unable to 
retain a firm footing on the steep declivity upon which it 
stood. It wanted the power to take advantage of the proper 
moment for abandoning the previous favourite system of 
yielding to every demand, in order to offer a determined 
opposition to demagogue excitements. The Minister of the 
Interior, in whose hands the police authority was placed, 
should have been chiefly responsible for this course. But he 
adopted no such measures, but continued to yield to the 
very persons whom he ought to have opposed with vigour. 
Many scandalous scenes were the consequence of this weak- 
ness. The two following occurrences will forcibly pourtray 
the existing state of things. 

Pillersdorf, according to the statements in the newspapers, 
communicated to a deputation, composed of the citizens and 
students of 'Vienna, the proceedings which had been insti- 

p2 



212 GENESIS OF THE 

tuted on account of the assaults of the people in the month 
of March on the Liguorian priests, and which were now 
undergoing investigation. This irregular communication 
occasioned a great excitement in the university against the 
persons who were conducting this complaint against the 
violence of the people, more particularly against the Arch- 
bishop of Vienna, in consequence of which, on the night of 
May 2nd, the archbishop's house was surrounded by stu- 
dents, citizens, and National Guards, the archbishop was 
insulted with cats' music, and even the windows of his house, 
before which the German colours were planted, were shat- 
tered to pieces, the flags torn away, and the staff carried 
about as a trophy. 

Count Ficquelmont (the provisional president of the 
ministry) had to endure a similar public insult, because he, 
also, was out of favour with the Vienna mob leaders. The 
latter sent their emissaries to him, who, unmindful of that 
German principle which is always so respected, that "my 
house is my castle," not only searched his ofhcial residence 
for him, but forced themselves violently into the dwelling 
of his daughter, in order to compel him to make a promise 
to vacate his office immediately. The cause of this act of 
violence was a suspicion that Count Ficquelmont, as former 
ambassador to Petersburg, entertained sympathies for Russia, 
and had occasioned the retirement of the War Minister 
Zanini, and the appointment of the Master of the Ordnance, 
Count Latour, to fill his place.* 

* We are surprised at learning from the pamphlet, "Die Nieder 
Oesterreichischen Landstande und die Genesis, &c.," that already, on 
previous occasions, attempts had been even made by members of the 
Diet to drive from office the councillors of the crown who had displeased 
them. We read, at page 38 of that pamphlet, that the Estates of 
Lower Austria twice suggested the necessity of his resignation to Count 
Hartig, who at that time was Minister of State and Conference, with- 
out a portfolio, and that fact has been confirmed from an authentic 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 213 

The retirement of Count Ficquelmont caused the presi- 
dency in the council to pass to Baron Pillersdorf, according 
to the announcement of the Vienna Gazette of the 5th of 
May, in its official part. The public insults offered to per- 
sons entitled to respect, and filling high situations, the vio- 
lation of the sanctity of private dwellings, the disturbance of 
tranquillity during the night in the streets of Yienna, the con- 
tempt for that privilege which belongs to every constitutional 
monarch, to place persons who enjoy his confidence at the 
head of his ministry; all these offences against freedom, 
order, and the royal prerogative, should have called for 
strong measures from the Minister of the Interior, who was 
at once chief of the police and also president of the ministry, 
in order, by punishing their authors and by the enforcement 
of proper measures, to prevent the repetition of similar out- 
breaks of unrestrained popular violence. In place of this, 
there was issued a paternal admonition of the emperor 
(dated May 4th), to his beloved citzens of Yienna, containing 
the counter-signature of Pillersdorf, in which he philoso- 
phises on the necessity of preserving public order, and in 
which the preservation of this order is committed to the 
honourable sense of the inhabitants, but particularly to 
the National Guard and the Academic Legion, with whom 

source. Some expressions which the count ventured to use on the 13th 
of March towards the deputies of the Estates who had sought shelter 
in the apartments of Archduke Louis, are assigned as the reason of 
this suggestion. He is said to have told them, if they wished only for 
the protection of the Assembly against the unruly crowds of people, 
they should have applied for that protection to the authorities charged 
with the maintenance of order and personal security, who, if it had 
"been claimed in due time, would certainly have afforded it. 

The poignant truth contained in those words seems to have deeply 
touched several of the leading men of the Estates, and to have excited 
their fears of seeing any further demands resisted by the person who 
ventured to utter those words, in case he was to remain in the councils 
of the emperor. Count Hartig's mission to Italy relieved them from 
those fears. 



214 GENESIS OF THE 

they were united, as well as to the corps of citizens, with 
the fullest confidence, and containing the assurance of the 
emperor that he always felt safe in their presence, and that 
it could not but fill him and every properly-disposed person 
with deep grief to witness that, notwithstanding such pro- 
tection, the freedom, the lives, the safety, and the honour of 
peaceable citizens were endangered. The minister who, after 
such repeated popular excesses, could propose to his sove- 
reign such an address to his rebellious subjects, and sign his 
own name thereto, signed at the same time a record which 
can leave no room for doubting the judgment of the world 
as to his fitness for the office which he had undertaken. 

It is said that the new president of the ministry paid a 
visit on the following day at the house of his predecessor, 
whom he had removed from office, and expressed his regret 
that he had been impeded on the previous evening in his 
exertions to protect him, by the pressure of the crowd; to 
which the latter replied, that surely other means than his 
personal presence were at the command of the Minister of 
the Interior, after a tumult had broken out, if he was really 
serious in his wish to provide protection. There could be 
no doubt of this in a theoretic point of view; but, as facts 
had already proved, the minister Pillersdorf was not the com- 
mander, but rather the subject, of the Vienna Town Council, 
and especially of the Administrative Council of the Academic 
Legion and the National Guard. Both these bodies, the 
offspring of the March revolution, were under the control of 
native and foreign agitators, so that in the last resource these 
persons were the real masters. 

We have already observed that the departure from the 
course pointed out by the decree of March 15th, for esta- 
blishing the constitution of the country, was the work of the 
Radicals, because such a constitution was intended to spring 



REVOLUTION Df AUSTRIA. 215 

from the existing provincial institutions, and a new state 
organization, upon the foundation of the Estates, was with 
them an object of aversion. They took advantage of the 
vanity of the Minister of the Interior, while they got rid of 
the necessity of preserving this basis, to institute the con- 
stitution of April 25th ; but they became immediately dis- 
contented with this also, as it provided no radical law of 
election in correspondence with the object they had chiefly 
at heart, viz., a continuation of the revolution. They already 
by anticipation expressed their distrust of* the results of the 
measure, on the score of its liberality, and they found fault 
with the composition of the first chamber, because the 150 
members who were to vote for the same were to be chosen 
from amongst their own body (that is, from amongst the 
nobles and the higher ranks of the clergy), by the votes of 
the most important landowners, and the crown, in addition, 
had reserved to itself the right of nominating members 
of this chamber : they censured the system of secretly 
managing afiairs, a relic of the old government, in conse- 
quence of which the chartered constitution, as well as the 
law of election, which was so very defective, could not be 
made subjects of discussion by the daily press before those 
measures had received the imperial decision. On May 5th 
the committee of the students at Yienna presented a peti- 
tion to the Minister of the Interior that the intended law of 
election for the choice of members for the second chamber 
should not fix any census, and that for members of the first 
chamber, in place of the most important land-ownership, 
an ownership which was not entirely imimportant should be 
a qiialification, and that this election, also, should be made 
by the people, and that the crown should exercise no right 
of nomination therein. The same Gazette which, on the 27th 
of April, in its official part, had published the expression of 



216 GENESIS OF THE 

the emperor's satisfaction at the joy and gratitude exhibited 
by the loyal inhabitants of his capital, on their receiving 
the constitution, expressed itself in the following terms in 
a leading article on the 7th of May with relation to that 
very exhibition : — 

" The constitution of April 2oth was a Torso, which might 
just as well have belonged to aThersites as to an Achilles. The 
conviction, or at least a suspicion, of this incompleteness was 
general — hence the lukewarmness with which the law, which 
was destined to solve the important question of our entire 
political existence, was received. There was no excitement, 
none of that excessive joy, with which the imperial announce- 
ment of May 15th was received and re-echoed, but there 
was also none of that irritation, none of that determined 
opposition which arose, for example, against the enactments 
with relation to the press, which was only one ingredient in 
the organization of our constitutional freedom." 

The public contradiction which was offered by such ob- 
servations to the emperor's cabinet letter of April 26th, 
and the opposition to the enactments concerning the press 
(which were unfortunately crowned with success), were suf- 
ficient indications that the chartered constitution would not 
be maintained without resistance. 

As early as May 6th the ministry announced that several 
memorials had been presented to them in the name of the 
National Guard and of the Civic Guard of the capital, by 
members of the council of administration of that guard, as 
representatives of their companies, in the name of the com- 
mittee of the council and of the students of Vienna, making 
numerous demands on the subject of the assembling of the 
approaching Diet, the intended law of election, the forma- 
tion of a ministry for the exclusive superintendence of agri- 
culture, trade, and commerce, the employment of the idle 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 217 

by means of public works, and the necessity of holding daily 
open and confidential communications with the public, on 
the circumstances of the time and on their own views (that 
is, the views of the ministry), with relation to the same. In 
place of rejecting with bold determination such officious 
intermeddling with legislative affairs and matters of admi- 
nistration, the minister offered excuses for what he had not 
yet performed or said, promised to pay speedy attention to 
the several demands of the different respectable bodies, and 
philosophized on the necessity of maintaining order, tran- 
quillity, and confidence, in sweet sentimental tones ; but did 
not neglect obediently to announce to his masters, the insti- 
tution, on the 9th of May, of two new ministerial offices, one 
for the management of public works, the other for agricul- 
ture, trade, and commerce. The first was filled by the former 
professor of natural history, who was afterwards director 
of the imperial porcelain manufactory, and subsequently 
director of the tobacco manufactory, the privy councillor 
Andreas Baumgartner, a worthy, plain man of business; the 
latter was filled by Baron von Doblhoff, a leader of the op- 
position and reform party in the Lower Austrian Estates, as 
that body existed previous to the month of March. This 
new minister possessed no experience in business, and was 
so little acquainted with matters and persons not comprised 
in the province of Lower Austria, that in reply to questions 
in the Diet, put to him as Minister of the Interior, he could 
only answer in the style that Majocchi, the witness from 
Lombardy, formerly answered in the celebrated green-bag 
process in London, who, in his prepared answers of "non lo so," 
or " non mi ricordo" won for himself such a laughable noto- 
riety with his hearers and readers of that time. Doblhoff, 
in like manner, made himself ridiculous in the following 
instance :— Two months and a half after his appointment 



218 GENESIS OF THE 

to the ministry, in the sitting of the Diet of July 25 th and 
:26th, he was unable to offer any explanation to the question 
of the deputy Mahalsky, " how it happened that, in addi- 
tion to Count Stadion, who was governor of Galicia, two 
other persons were acting there in an official capacity T He 
could only make reply, that as he had but lately been ap- 
pointed Minister of the Interior, he must request indulgence 
till the next sitting of the Diet ; which ignorance of the 
minister occasioned the wits of Vienna to announce as a 
prize essay, "that a proper reward will be given to the 
Minister of the Interior if he can say, by the next sitting of 
the Diet, who is the governor of the province of Galicia." 

The creation of these two places, and the appointment 
of Doblhoff as minister, had, in the estimation of those who 
usurped the authority of the government, the value and 
effect of a new concession, and tended to increase their 
boldness. 

5. The ease with which the Vienna demagogues succeeded 
in accomplishing their wishes, encouraged them to be no 
longer content with half measures, and emboldened them 
to require the formal recognition of that popular authority, 
which had hitherto existed merely by permission. 

They declared loudly, and without reserve, that nobody 
would believe either that the chartered constitution was 
anything more than a temporary expedient, unless it were 
adopted either expressly or tacitly by the next Diet, or 
that a charter in the old meaning of the word could at the 
present day be instituted by the government, and that, 
therefore, the next Diet must infallibly have authority to 
frame a constitution. The system of two chambers was 
loudly censured, and even the lower order of nobles, who 
should at least have been contented with this system, were 
willing to see every approximation to the aristocratic prin- 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 219 

ciple banished from the first chamber. The election law, 
which was sanctioned by the emperor on May 9th, upon the 
unanimous proposal of the Ministerial Council, occasioned 
the most violent outcries against the government, because 
the preponderance of the influence of the aristocracy in the 
first chamber could be evidently foreseen as the result. 

The Political Central Committee of the Yienna National 
Guard formed the focus in which were concentrated the rays 
of discontent, mistrust, anger, and opposition, which streamed 
from all quarters. The origin of a Political Central Committee 
commenced with the time when the university, before the 
organization of an Academic Legion, had taken the lead in the 
struggle for freedom. When, at a later period, after the forma- 
tion of this legion and its union with the National Guard, an 
administrative council was formed by means of represen- 
tatives from each company of the Guard, in order to arrange all 
matters relating to the service, this committee invited the 
National Guard as well as the armed Civic Guard to send 
plenipotentiaries to attend their consultations, which request 
was cheerfully obeyed, and caused the institution of " The 
Political Central Committee of the Yienna National Guard." 
In imitation of the preliminary parliament of Frankfurt, 
this committee, in the absence of any other assembly of 
popular representatives, pretended to act as the expression 
of public opinion, and claimed authority in opposition to a 
government hitherto never controlled in its tendencies, 
which were destructive of freedom. The Minister of the 
Interior thought such a control not only becoming, but sub- 
mitted to its influence in obedience to the same maxims 
which had induced him to entertain members of the Aca- 
demic Legion daily at his table, and to establish in the 
ministerial offices (formerly the palace of the Bohemian Court 
Chancery) a department, presided over by the celebrated 



220 



GENESIS OF THE 



Professor Endlicher, in order to maintain an uninterrupted 
communication with the Aula. If the pure morals of the 
philosopher deserve commendation, who wished that he 
possessed a transparent house, in order that his every action 
might be under observation, the optimism of the statesman 
must surely provoke a smile of pity, who sought to rule the 
state from the centre of a transparent cabinet, particularly in 
a time of unbridled licentiousness, when hostile factions were 
perpetually opposed to each other. The committee, con- 
sisting of 200 members, made no secret that it would only 
consider its mission accomplished after the interment of the 
election law, which had, in truth, been still-born, and after a 
real representation of the people should have been established; 
and thus a government should exist for the people of Austria, 
enjoying their perfect confidence, and not, as was now the case, 
possessing the full and well-deserved mistrust of the nation. 
These sentiments were published by the journal which was 
employed by the government to make its official announce- 
ments, namely, the Vienna Gazette (evening supplement, 
No. 44), and which was, therefore, officially circulated — a 
circumstance for which we should vainly look for an example 
even in the pages of the French Moniteur in the times of 
the first French revolution. This committee furthermore 
neglected no arts to win the favour of the mob both in town 
and country. All complaints, demands, or requests of the 
inhabitants of the town and the suburbs received attention 
and advice from the Aula. Under the pretext of a dissuasion 
from opposition to the landlords, an address of the students of 
Vienna was published to the people, in which they announced 
themselves as the warmest friends and most vigilant de- 
fenders of public freedom, and laid claim to the most com- 
plete popular confidence. The working classes, above all. 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 221 

were cajoled by the zeal with which the Aula had insisted 
on the undertaking of public works, and on the appointment 
of a ministry for that purpose. To the men who sought to 
establish the rule of popular supremacy we must concede the 
possession of astonishing skill in the pursuit of their object. 
They displayed this in selecting a fit moment for destroying 
the constitution of April 25th. They availed themselves for 
this purpose of the discontent expressed by the National 
Guard at an order of their commander, Count Hoyos, because 
the Political Central Committee was abolished by that order, 
as being inconsistent with the nature and character of an 
armed body. At first the National Guard was induced by 
the committee to remonstrate with its commander, but after- 
wards, when Count Hoyos was found to be firm and inflexi- 
ble, they rushed in tumult to the ministry with a clamorous 
petition to revoke the order. This happened on May 15th. 
The ministers assembled on that day for one of their ordi- 
nary consultations. The president had received notice of an 
impending popular disturbance, and observed to his col- 
leagues that it would be advisable to bring their deliberations 
to an early close. But the National Guards were more 
prompt than the ministers ; they forced themselves into the 
Imperial Burg (where the Ministerial Council was imprudently 
holding its sittings, in a room close to the ante-room of the 
emperor's residence, although there was no want of a locality 
adapted for such a purpose in the palace of the Minister of 
the Interior) ; a deputation from the Central Committee pro- 
ceeded to the council and demanded the revocation of the 
order alluded to, an alteration of the election law, and (in 
order, as they pretended, to appease the anger of the people 
against the government, to whom they attributed the inten- 
tion of abolishing by military force the freedom which had 



GENESIS OF THE 

been extorted) the promise that the calling out the military 
to preserve order should in future only take place at the 
request of the Guard, and that the patrolling of the Burg 
should be shared by the Guard in conjunction with the 
military. The ministerial president, in his usual fashion, 
addressed sweet words to the rioters, and besought them to 
retire in order that their demands might be taken into 
immediate consideration. The Vienna garrison, at the first 
indication of a tumult between the [National Guard and the 
people, was drawn out in its accustomed place of assembling. 
The pressure of the mob was momentarily increased by the 
addition of the workmen, who hastened to the spot. The 
object of this gathering was known to but few; the majority 
were satisfied at hearing that the government had evinced 
the most hostile intentions, which it was necessary to oppose : 
that for this purpose the students and National Guards were 
ready, but must be supported in their endeavours by the 
brave working classes. But the Ministerial Council resolved 
not to give in so quickly as the impatience of those who 
waited outside had led them to expect. Whereupon Giskra. 
doctor of laws and of philosophy, one of the most active of 
the violent since the days of March, and subsequently 
celebrated as a deputy in the Frankfurt Parliament, rushed 
into the room with a cry that it was now too late, that 
the people would no longer be controlled, that the demands 
of the Central Committee would no longer satisfy them, 
and that they demanded a Constituent Diet without two 
chambers. The stairs which led to the place where the 
ministers were assembled and to the residence of the emperor 
were already beset with armed guards. The council now 
thought to subdue the storm by promising to procure a con- 
cession to the demands made by the Central Committee. 



REVOLUTION Hi AUSTRIA. 223 

No allusion was made to the other measures proposed by 
Giskra. The proclamation of the ministerial determination 
satisfied the multitude. The ministers might separate peace- 
ably ; the imperial ante--rooras, which were filled with armed 
men, who boasted that the bullets were already in the barrels of 
their muskets, were gradually emptied, and the evening found 
the streets of the city frequented only by peaceably-disposed 
individuals. But the party of whom Giskra had been the 
speaking-trumpet, thought they had not sufficiently profited 
by the commotion of the day, and wished to prosecute their 
own plans, unknown though they were to the great mass of 
the Vienna population, as they supposed the same feelings of 
fear, which had been the cause of the late concessions, could 
also produce the repeal of the chartered constitution and 
the convocation of the so much wished for Diet for the 
purpose of framing a constitution. During the operation of 
this fear, therefore, on the mind of Pillersdorf, who was at 
the head of the executive power, they endeavoured, at the 
approach of night, to regain what they had lost ; certain 
members of the Central Committee conducted a mob to his 
residence, forced themselves into his chamber, and extorted 
from him a written promise to persuade the emperor to make 
these further concessions. The terrified president did not 
neglect to fulfil his promise by surprising the emperor sud- 
denly, without consultation with his colleagues, and as it is 
said, without even having previously made the presumptive 
heir to the throne acquainted with his intentions. 

Thus arose the imperial proclamation of May 1 6th, whose 
most important and eventful feature, namely, that clause 
which destroyed the chartered constitution, and gave birth 
to a Diet for the purpose of framing a constitution, did 
not result from the resolutions of a Ministerial Council, 



224 GENESIS OF THE 

but was the work of one single minister, and was only adopted 
without a protest from the other ministers, because it was 
considered an event already completed, and which could 
not, under existing circumstances, be averted. This pro- 
clamation was as follows : — 

" In order to quiet the disturbances which took place in our 
capital on May 15th, 1848, and for the sake of preventing a 
breach of the public peace by acts of violence, by the advice 
of our Ministerial Council, the withdrawal of the order issued 
on May 13th, 1848, to our National Guard, with relation to 
the proceedings of the Political Central Committee, has been 
decreed, and the two requests made by the National Guard 
have been granted, viz., that the city gates and the main 
guard at the Burg, in all its divisions, shall be occupied 
jointly by the military and the National Guard, and that 
the military shall be called on to afford necessary assistance 
only in cases when the National Guard shall require the 
same. By the advice of our Ministerial Council, in order to 
remove all remaining causes for displeasure and excitement, 
we annex to these resolutions the additional announcement, 
that the constitution of April 2oth, 1848, shall be sub- 
mitted to the immediate deliberation of the Diet, and 
the provisions of the election law which have given cause 
for apprehension, shall be subjected to a new examina- 
tion. 

" That the establishment of the constitution by means 
of the Diet convoked to frame a constitution, may be 
effected in the most certain manner, we have decreed that 
only one chamber shall be elected for the first Diet, in 
pursuance of which no census shall be established for the 
votes, and all doubts of an insufficient representation of the 
people shall be set at rest. 

" "We cherish the conviction that all classes of citizens will 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 225 

await with patience and confidence the early opening of the 
Diet. 

" Ferdinand. 

" Pillersdorf, Minister of the Interior 
and Provisional President. 

"Sommaruga, Minister of Justice and 
Public Instruction. 

" Kraus, Minister of Finance. 

" Doblhoff, Minister of Trade. 

" Baumgartner, Minister of Public Works." 
" Vienna, May 16th, 1848." 

"When we compare the contents and expression of this 
imperial proclamation with the decree of March 15th, we 
must feel astonished at the rapid march of the revolution 
and the depression of the power of the government during 
the short period of two months. When we remember the 
words addressed by the emperor to the inhabitants of 
Vienna on April 26th, only three weeks before, "that he 
felt in the deepest foundation of his heart the great honour 
of being called on to guide the destinies of such a people," 
we must feel the most painful sensations at witnessing this 
people so quickly hurried away to deeds of violence, which 
the sovereign could only subdue by revoking the same consti- 
tution, for the grateful reception of which he had addressed 
to the inhabitants of Vienna those expressions of his 
satisfaction. The epithet " Constituent" (Assembly of the 
Pealm) was not even avoided in the proclamation, although 
it might have been equally as well described by the epithet 
"next," without giving room for the charge of any mystery 
or uncertainty in expressing the imperial determinations ; but 
that epithet having been inserted in such a manner, afforded 
an opportunity, soon after the assembling of the Diet, for 
introducing the epithet " sovereign " as part of the descrip- 

Q 



226 GENESIS OF THE 

tion, and thus to declare that the power of government 
emanated from the people. If the words of the imperial 
proclamation were calculated to proclaim the triumph of the 
revolution, this result was accomplished in a still more un- 
doubted manner, by a ministerial announcement published 
in the evening edition of the Vienna Gazette of the same 
date (May 16th), which we here subjoin literally, as a most 
remarkable document, and one that completely explains the 
character of the ministry : — 

" Since the withdrawal of the order issued by the com- 
mander of the National Guard against the conduct of the 
Political Committee of the same, has been demanded from 
the assembled Ministerial Council by repeated deputations, 
the commander has not thought it proper to grant the re- 
quest, accompanying his decision with the threat that he 
would resign his authority into the hands of the king, if the 
National Guard should evince a want of confidence in him. 

" This declaration was received with decided disapprobation, 
and with the answer that the public safety and tranquillity 
were gravely threatened, and that the worst was to be 
apprehended. Moreover, the ministers received very alarm- 
ing information on the matter in dispute, and on the great 
sympathy and interest which the subject of the petition had 
excited, and upon the measures that might be required to 
oppose any display of feeling on the part of the people, who 
were in a state of great excitement. These circumstances 
demanded the most serious consideration, for thousands of 
workmen had thronged into the town, and showed a dis- 
position to take violent steps. 

" In this state of things, the ministers considered it their 
most sacred duty, regardless of all personal reflections, to 
provide for the safety of the throne, the dynasty, and the 
unity of the monarchy. These duties obliged them to make 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 227 

great sacrifices in order to avert a still greater misfortune. 
They had cancelled the obnoxious order, had established, in 
conformity with the determination of his majesty the joint 
occupation of the gates of the town and of the main guard 
at the Burg by the military and the National Guard, and 
had also ordered that the military should only be called upon 
to act in those cases of extreme danger, when the National 
Guards themselves should require it. But even these con- 
cessions were not sufficient to tranquillize the general ex- 
citement. The establishment of the constitution by a 
Diet convened to frame a constitution was called for, as 
also a revision of the election law, and by granting these 
demands was the preservation of peace only declared pos- 
sible. Called upon, before all things, to protect the sacred 
power of his majesty, the constitutional throne, and the safety 
of the royal residence, which is seriously threatened, and 
also to strengthen the conviction that his majesty is sincere 
in each and all the concessions which he has made, the 
ministers have assumed the responsibility of proposing to 
his majesty to declare that the first Diet shall be con- 
voked to frame a constitution, and that the election for the 
same shall be confined to one chamber, for which purpose 
the elective qualifications established for the senate shall 
upon this occasion be sufficient, and the temporary election 
law shall be submitted to a new examination. Little as 
they are disposed to shrink from the responsibility of these 
measures, they fee], however, that such proceedings, and 
their tendency, have diminished their power and oppor- 
tunity of contributing by their services to the support of 
the throne. 

"Their feelings of duty have therefore placed them under 
the unavoidable necessity of surrendering into the hands of 
his majesty the ministerial functions intrusted to them, in 

Q.2 



228 GENESIS OF THE 

order that the monarch may have an opportunity of sur- 
rounding himself with councillors who enjoy a more general 
and more powerful support." 

In this declaration we may observe a repetition of that 
style of language which in the month of March had been 
used by the Lower Austrian Trades' Union, by the Austrian 
citizens when presenting their petitions, and by those well- 
intentioned meddlers, for the purpose of intimidating the 
emperor and the royal family with the prospect of the near 
danger that threatened the throne and the ruling dynasty, 
and thus rendering them incapable of resistance. In the 
mouth of any speaker, such words might serve for the expres- 
sion of exaggerated apprehensions or as threats ; but when 
uttered publicly by the ministry, they were entitled to all 
the serious weight of an admission that the revolution was. 
now in its highest phase, because the throne and the person 
of the sovereign were no longer considered sacred. An ad- 
mission of this kind could only be permitted to a ministry 
which should find it necessary to justify the unsparing use of 
the sword ; when used as a justification of their unconditional 
surrender, without any attempt at resistance, it must be con- 
sidered to operate as a premium on rebellion and high trea- 
son : that such was the effect, is proved by the history of 
the October days, — a history which is written in letters of 
blood. The establishment of an act of government, such as 
that of May 15th, on the foundation of such fears, must, 
under any circumstances, have been condemned as impolitic, 
even when such fears might be well grounded. But these 
apprehensions were erroneous ; for the throne of the Aus- 
trian emperor did not rest upon a single pillar, viz., upon the 
capital of Vienna, — it was supported also by the provinces, 
which were by no means disposed to bow patiently under 
the yoke of the Vienna demagogues. If the revolution of 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 229 

March found an echo in the provinces, this only resulted 
because it promised an accomplishment of the wishes which 
w;ere generally felt for improvement, in accordance with the 
sentiments of the age ; but that this improvement should lead 
to the destruction of the throne, was never contemplated by 
Austrians, Styrians, Illyrians, Hungarians, Croats, Tyrolese, 
Bohemians, Moravians, Silesians, or others ; at least not by 
the overwhelming majority of those very persons who had so 
unequivocally stepped forward to oppose the revolutionary 
party of Vienna, immediately after they had made a public 
avowal of such principles. But, in addition to this, the loyalty, 
attachment, and bravery of the imperial army supplied a 
firm pillar to the throne. Possibly, indeed, a fanatical mob 
might, on May 15th, have threatened the person of the em- 
peror, a danger which ought to have been avoided by other 
means than by ministerial timidity. If these means were 
not available on March 13th, it must be ascribed to the fact 
that the events of that day were as surprising as a thunder- 
storm in a clear sky ; but, in truth, even this would not have 
been a subject of surprise, if the voices of those prophets had 
not been neglected who, under shelter of the surround- 
ing trees, foretold the approaching storm. Long previous to 
May 15th the thunder clouds had threatened fearfully ; time 
had been allowed to discharge the duty of providing lightning 
conductors for the protection of the emperor and his family : 
in case of extremity, the garrison of Vienna might have 
gathered round those dear heads, and have accompanied 
them from the city to a place of protection, as occurred in 
the following October under far less favourable circum- 
stances. The conclusion of that ministerial explanation is, 
in truth, a remarkable event in the history of constitutional 
ministries. One may observe, from a study of such histories, 
that ministers always conceive it their duty to abandon their 



230 GENESIS OP THE 

posts when they cannot approve of the demands of the 
people, or fail to secure the concurrence of the crown in the 
measures they propose ; but that a ministry which had advo- 
cated the popular wishes before the sovereign, in which 
wishes they had found the latter willing to acquiesce, should, 
in a moment of excitement, retire from office and leave to 
other men the completion of their own plans, — this is an 
event which has never yet happened in a constitutional state 
either on this or on the other side of the ocean. 

6. The immediate consequence of the events alluded to in 
that ministerial explanation appeared on the following day. 
It is important to bear in mind how this result, namely, the 
departure of the emperor and the imperial family from the 
capital, was viewed by the ministry itself, and publicly an- 
nounced in the two following proclamations : — 

" This evening, at nine o'clock, a verbal and unexpected 
communication has been made to the ministry, that his ma- 
jesty the emperor, for the benefit of his health, accompanied 
by the empress, and the illustrious Archduke Francis Charles, 
with his illustrious wife and three children, have left the 
palace and have taken the route to Innsbruck. The under- 
signed ministers, who are unacquainted with the reason and 
immediate motives of this journey, consider themselves bound 
to communicate it to the inhabitants of the capital. They 
have also considered it their first duty to despatch a confi- 
dential person to his majesty during the night, namely, the 
Count Hoyos, commander of the National Guards, to make 
an urgent request that the people might be tranquillized 
by the return of the emperor, or by a public statement of 
the reasons which render such a course impossible. The 
same urgent request will be made to the archduke, through 
the medium of the president, Count Wilczek. The Minis- 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 231 

terial Council are sensible of their sacred duties in this im- 
portant moment, to dedicate their whole care and attention 
to the interests of the country, and to act on their responsi- 
bility as circumstances may demand. The support of their 
fellow-citizens, and of all well-disposed persons, will enable 
them to preserve peace and order, and contribute to tran- 
quillize the public mind. All farther information upon this 
subject, which the ministers may acquire, will be communi- 
cated truly and fully to the public ; and as soon as they 
shall receive from the monarch any direct orders or commu- 
nications, they will publish the same without delay. 
" The temporary Ministers, 

" PlLLERSDORF, SOMMARUGA, KRAUS, IjATOUR, 
DOBLHOFF, BAUMGARTNER. 

"Vienna, the 17 th May, 1848." 

" The Ministerial Council has read in the non-official part 
of the Vienna Gazette of this day, a comparison of the de- 
parture of his majesty the emperor from Vienna, which is 
there considered only as prospective, with the flight of King 
Louis XYI., with the observation appended, i that the last 
day of his majesty's presence here would be the first day of 
the republic' 

" The Ministerial Council assuredly acts as the organ of the 
united inhabitants of Vienna, as well as of all persons loyally 
disposed towards their good monarch, in repudiating, with 
the utmost indignation, all participation in such sentiments, 
or in any views of the inhabitants of Vienna to overturn 
the monarchial constitution. In such an interpretation of 
the decision of his majesty, with respect to his intention of 
taking up his temporary residence in this or that part of the 
constitutional monarchy, the Ministerial Council can only 



232 GENESIS OF THE 

recognize a deplorable error, or the calumny of a few indivi- 
duals, against the unshaken loyalty of Austrians of all races 
to their monarch. 

" The temporary ministry owes this explanation to all the 
inhabitants of Vienna ; and in full concord with the whole 
population of Vienna, and in union with the National Guard, 
in all its divisions, and also with the military, they will 
firmly and resolutely adopt measures, not only to maintain 
the public safety and tranquillity, but they will also with 
earnest determination protect monarchial order, and the in- 
violable loyalty and attachment of subjects to their beloved 
emperor. 

" The temporary Ministers of his Majesty 
the Emperor. 

" Vienna, May 18th, 1848." 

These two ministerial proclamations suffice to display the 
revolution in its complete development. The sovereign 
with his family fugitives, and the supreme power in the state 
exercised by a temporary ministry, who coolly admit that 
they are ignorant of the cause, and know not what they can 
do more than send confidential persons in pursuit of the 
illustrious travellers to persuade them to return ; and who, 
when a daring newspaper threatens that a republic will com- 
mence if the emperor should leave Vienna, in place of handing 
over the editor to the strong arm of the law, content them- 
selves with words, which, however mighty they sound, must 
be considered as no more than empty echoes, after every- 
thing which that same ministry had in the previous days 
been known to tolerate and to utter. 

The destructive party took advantage of the departure of 
the emperor and his family to heap abuse on the aristocracy, 
who were charged with enticing the former away to avenge 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA, 233 

themselves on the citizens of Vienna, and on a pretended 
camarilla, who were said to have advised such a course. Both 
statements were grossly untrue. The occurrences of May 
loth, and the publications of the following days, must 
assuredly have intimated to the imperial family that they 
were no longer safe in Vienna ; and at the moment when the 
emperor could no longer enjoy the privilege, exercised by 
every private individual, of confiding the care of his house to 
the guardians of his own choice, the Empress Maria Anna 
must have called to mind the captivity of Louis XVI. , since 
she had passed her years of childhood in the island of Sardi- 
nia, whither her parents had fled after the French revolu- 
tion, amongst the traditions of that time of terror : we can, 
therefore, readily understand her anxiety to withdraw from 
similar dangers which had been often threatening since the 
month of March, before the care, or rather the watching, of the 
Imperial Burg should be undertaken by those same National 
Guards, of whom the greater part had already so shamefully 
and audaciously violated their duty to the emperor, and the 
reverence which they owed to the imperial family. The prepa- 
rations for the united occupation of the Bm^g by the military 
and the National Guards were to be completed on May 17th ; 
no time was therefore to be lost, in order to realize this reason- 
able desire. The strictest secresy was therefore observed, and 
none of the household were made acquainted with the plan. 
A drive to Schonbrunn was undertaken in the evening, and 
from thence orders were given to proceed along the road. 
One of the chamberlains who was present, was then instructed 
to acquaint the Minister of War with the departure of the 
court. The latter hastened to inform the other ministers of 
the fact, and detained the bearer of the news in the palace of 
the Minister of "War, until he had been exa min ed by the 
Ivlinisterial Council concerning his errand ; but he was able to 



234 GENESIS OF THE 

communicate nothing further than that he had been told the 
emperor had resolved upon a journey to the mountains of 
Tyrol for the benefit of his health, and that the family would 
not leave him alone. The court and the aristocracy of 
Vienna were not less astonished at this departure than the 
ministry and the other inhabitants of the city. 

7. This wisely-determined and prudently-managed decision 
of the emperor to withdraw himself from the influence of the 
Vienna democracy, if it had only been combined with other 
measures, might have put a stop to the further progress of 
the revolution ; isolated, however, as he remained, he only 
gave opportunity for the formation of a dangerous ministerial 
regency, which led to violent recriminations, and strenuous 
exertions to bring the court back again to Vienna. This, 
however, was only effected, when such attempts were 
repeated in no very delicate manner by the Diet that 
assembled in Vienna in the month of July, without having 
previously restrained the excesses and violence which had 
driven the emperor from his residence. In the first burst of 
surprise and sorrow which seized all classes in Vienna at the 
absence of the court, the ministry might have found a power- 
ful support even in the majority of the National Guards, if 
they had taken advantage of the movement to suppress the 
excesses of a part of that guard, of the press, of the Aula, and 
of the clubs. But in this respect they did nothing which was 
effective. In the room of the Political Central Committee, 
which had voluntarily dissolved itself, they allowed a Commit- 
tee of Safety to be established, which was only calculated to 
weaken the efficiency of the legally-constituted organs of go- 
vernment. On May 20th they published a provisional law in 
relation to the press, which, however, could not but be ineffi- 
cient to meet the pressing demands of the time, because its 
application depended on conditions which demanded a consi- 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 235 

derable time to complete, viz. the institution of public judicial 
proceedings and properly-constituted juries. The dissolution 
and re-construction of the corps of National Guards, which had 
become false to its original design, had never been contemplated, 
any more than measures against abusing the right of holding 
meetings. On May 25th, for the first time, the ministry, 
on the requisition of a professor, who in March had placed 
himself at the head of the movement, but who was now tired 
of the daily-increasing violence of the students, determined 
to dissolve the Academic Legion.* This resolution was to 
have been carried into operation on May 26th by means of the 
National Guard, and military interference (in accordance 
with the imperial proclamation of May 15th) was only to 
be allowed on their application to that effect. But, 
instead of this mode of proceeding being observed, the 
military alone, in insufficient numbers, were opposed to 
the Academic Legion ; members of the latter hastened 
as deputies to those companies of the National Guard 
who sympathized with them, and also to the numerous 
workmen who were assembled in Yienna and the suburbs, a 
body of men whom the students had ever patronised, and 
whom they now implored for assistance, alleging that a 
reaction had already commenced; that the Committee of 
Safety, formed after the departure of the emperor, for the 

* It was the same professor to whom we have already twice alluded 
without naming him, first as an opponent of the Austrian policy in a law 
exercise for the doctor's degree, and subsequently as a member of the 
university deputation, which, on the 13th of March, demanded the 
arming of the students. The " Geissel " (Scourge), a Viennese journal, 
in its criticism, of the " Genesis," intended to do homage to him in its 
number 277 of the year 1849, by publishing his name in reference to the 
above dissertation, as that of a mom of progress hefore March. We 
believe it to be equally honourable to him if we mention him here as 
a man of reflection after March, and we therefore take leave to repeat 
the words of the u Geissel." The professor who has twice leen alluded io 
is Hye, the ministerial covmciUor. 



236 GENESIS OF THE 

preservation of peace and order, had sold itself to the aristo- 
cracy and the camarilla ; that the concessions which had been 
already extorted were to be abolished by military violence, 
and that for this purpose Prince Windischgratz was already 
approaching Vienna with a considerable body of troops. This 
appeal for assistance, supported though it was by falsehood, 
did not fail to produce its intended effect. The streets of the 
city were soon closed up with barricades, filled with National 
Guards, and with the armed workmen, who were their tools, 
and were stripped of the pavement, which was immediately col- 
lected in heaps on the parapets of the windows of the houses, 
in order to be hurled down upon the passing military. But 
such preparations for defence were altogether unnecessary, for 
no attack was made on the disturbers of the public peace. The 
most prominent members of the Committee of Safety, as also 
the President of the administration of Lower Austria, Count 
Montecuculi, escaped hj flight from the popular tumult, and 
the Ministerial Council once more purchased tranquillity by a 
complete concession to the demands of the rioters, which was 
announced by the ministerial proclamations of the same and 
of the following day. (See Appendix, Sup. 2.) 

This new triumph of the revolution increased its preten- 
sions in the same degree that it weakened and humiliated the 
government. From the ruins of the Committee of Safety, 
which had been scattered on May 26th, and from the frag- 
ments of the Political Central Committee, which had pre- 
viously existed, a sort of revolutionary assembly was formed 
under the title of " a committee of the citizens, National 
Guards, and students of Vienna, for the preservation of peace 
and order, and the protection of the rights of the people." 
In the latter part of this title was involved an usurpation and 
demand to exercise a constant control over the proceedings of 
every minister, which soon grew into a complete protectorate, 



DEVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 23T 

so that no minister could afterwards act in pursuance of his 
own conviction, but only according to the permission of his 
protector, who could depend, moreover, for support against his 
pupil in the protection of a part of the National Guard, the 
Academic Legion, and the mass of the working classes. The 
ministry, in the proclamation of May 26th, had promised the 
workmen to provide employment for them, and had thus 
admitted that that body was entitled to the dangerous privi- 
lege of requiring the government to provide them with the 
means of subsistence ; a demand which, wherever it has been 
allowed, has never failed to produce the most melancholy 
conflicts, and of which the working classes of Vienna had 
never previously dreamt. In the name of the Ministerial 
Council, Pillersdorf, on May 27th, declared the above-men- 
tioned lately-formed committee to be independent of all 
other authorities, and thus established its formation upon 
a legal basis. At the same time the minister announced that 
the alternative had been offered to the emperor, either to 
return to Vienna immediately, or to appoint an imperial 
prince as his representative, an announcement of the most 
dangerous consequence to the state. Thus a ministerial 
recognition was given to that maxim claimed by the arro- 
gance of the Viennese, that the Austrian monarchy could 
only be governed from Vienna, and the destructive example 
of the Magyars was followed, who had been able, in the room 
of their king, so long as he resided beyond the boundaries of 
Hungary, to establish a viceroy, who almost entirely super- 
seded the influence of the king himself. 

8. On May 20th the emperor issued a manifesto from 
Innsbruck to his people, the publication of which took 
place on the same day, and on the following day was an- 
nounced by means of cabinet letters to the whole monarchy, 
as well as to the palatine in Hungary and to the minis- 



r 



238 GENESIS OF THE 

terial president in Vienna. The causes of the emperor's 
withdrawing from his capital were therein publicly stated, 
and the feelings of the sovereign at the injury offered to 
him, on May 15th, by the Academic Legion, a part of the 
National Guards, and the citizens of Vienna, were fully 
expressed. But on May 25th, the day when this manifesto 
first appeared in Vienna, the moment was past in which 
these words of the emperor, which were at once firm and 
mild, could have produced a certain and decided influence 
upon the events of the capital, namely, when the first amaze- 
ment was felt at the expulsion of the imperial family; they 
echoed now without effect, and were even used on the very 
next morning as a means to provoke excitement, after a 
fresh conflict had been commenced between the revolution 
and the government, and the former had proved victorious 
without a struggle. An admonition of the sovereign, when 
it is not obeyed, should ever be followed by strong mea- 
sures, else majesty will lose both in respect and power. 
Not only, however, were such measures not resorted to, but 
the moral impression of the manifesto was entirely effaced 
by a subsequent imperial proclamation, which was issued 
from Innsbruck on June 3rd, inasmuch as its address " To 
the loyal Inhabitants of my Capital," as well as its contents, 
which announced a more friendly disposition of the em- 
peror, excited astonishment, after the fresh insults that were 
in the mean time offered to the authority of government in 
Vienna. (See Appendix, Sup, 3.) This alteration, as it 
could not have been the effect of circumstances, must be 
ascribed to the influence of the advisers of the crown who 
had in the interim joined the sovereign. The manifesto of 
May 20th was a complete expression of the feelings and senti- 
ments of Ferdinand; no minister had assisted in its com- 
pilation — none of them had prepared it. The proclamation 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 239 

of June 3rd, on the contrary, was an act of government 
for which two ministers, then in Innsbruck, Wessenberg 
and Doblhoff, were responsible. The former of these two 
ministers had been nominated as successor of Ficquelmont, 
as the minister of the imperial house and for foreign affairs, 
as well as in the presidency of the Ministerial Council, 
and had come from Freiburg to Innsbruck; the latter had 
been hastily sent by Pillersdorf to the emperor from Vienna. 
Wessenberg, since his mission to London, after the French 
revolution in 1830, had fallen out with Metternich, and 
was therefore favoured by the enemies of the latter; he was 
an honourable diplomatist and a liberal of sterling value.* 
Doblhoff was a friend of reform and a zealous leader of the 
opposition party in lower Austria; by his connection with 
that party, he therefore knew their sentiments, and by 
means of the explanations which he could give to the 
minister, he managed to acquire his full confidence. It is 
true that he was neither a man of business nor a statesman, 
but yet he was better acquainted with the more intimate 
affairs of the government than the ministerial president 
himself. We may here perceive that the words which these 
two men put into the mouth of the emperor partook of 
that character of supreme forbearance, which had marked all 

* The well-informed author of the review of the " Genesis,' ' which 
appeared in the first number of the twenty-fifth volume of the " His- 
toriche Politische Blatter, &c," corrects our statement of a rupture 
having existed since 1830 between Metternich and Wessenberg. The 
latter minister had incurred the displeasure of the emperor, who con- 
sidered him to have exceeded his instructions in signing, in 1831, a 
certain protocol relating to the regulation of questions at issue between 
the > kingdom of the Netherlands and Belgium. He had since that 
period disappeared from the diplomatic stage. This disappearance was 
ascribedby public opinion to a divergence from the political views of 
Metternich. It equally explained the joyful welcome which was given 
to the retired statesman on his entry into the constitutional ministry of 
Austria. 



240 GENESIS OF THE 

the acts of the ministry since the month of March, but was 
not at all calculated to put an end to the revolution. 

In all the provinces of the monarchy, as well as in Hun- 
gary and its crown lands, the manifesto of the emperor, of 
May 20th, had produced addresses of submission, and in 
every place where it was possible to suppose that the em- 
peror might take up his residence, the wish was expressed 
to witness the royal family, who had been scared away from 
Vienna, establishing their abode there. But, however affect- 
ing these expressions of attachment and sympathy might be, 
and however sincerely those sentiments, which the addresses 
had called forth, might be shared by the majority of those per- 
sons, every attentive observer must have marked the injurious 
influence which had been produced in all parts of the empire 
on the minds of the people, by the repeated triumphs of the 
revolution over the power and authority of the government 
of Vienna, without encountering any serious or determined 
opposition. The imperial family was no doubt an object 
of pity with thousands ; but pity is never calculated to 
exalt its object in the esteem of mankind ; sentimental 
sympathy for a person who is the sport of fate never in- 
creases his power or authority, but, on the contrary, dimi- 
nishes both, when sensations of admiration are not coupled 
with such a feeling. "When Maria Theresa, supporting her 
little son upon her arm, advanced in front of the Hungarian 
Estates and confided her own fate and that of her child to- 
the loyalty and valour of her Hungarian subjects, an enthu- 
siastic and universal shout might well resound of " Mori- 
amiir pro Rege nostro Maria Theresa!" since, with the feel- 
ing of pity were united sentiments of admiration at the 
heroic courage of a woman calmly contemplating an ap- 
proaching battle. The complaints uttered by Ferdinand 
the Good, with so much truth and dignity, on May 20th, 



REVOLUTION m AUSTRIA. 241 

at the ingratitude of his capital, in order to produce a 
stronger impression than that of pity, ought to have been 
followed by deeds, at least when the transactions which took 
j)lace at Vienna on May 26th showed that the imperial 
address was destined to remain unheeded. It was the duty 
of those councillors who influenced the imperial proclama- 
tion of June 3rd to take such steps. Instead of destroying, 
as they did by such means, all hope that the emperor 
was resolved to make no further concessions to the revo- 
lution, not only in Yienna, but universally, they should have 
persuaded the emperor to prove his intentions by his deeds. 
The appointment of a military governor armed with the 
most extensive powers, and a simultaneous establishment 
of martial law in Yienna, should have succeeded the insur- 
rection of May 26th, in place of that paternal proclamation. 
The Yienna National Guard at that time had not the can- 
non which, in the month of July, were delivered to them 
from the imperial arsenal, and at that time the fury of the 
Yiennese could give rise to no apprehensions for the im- 
perial family, who were dwelling under the protection of the 
loyal mountaineers, and this pretence for weakening the 
power of the government could no longer be brought for- 
ward as the chief justification of an ever-yielding weakness. 

9. The loss of respect by the government, in all parts of 
the empire, was more or less evident. In the capital of Bo- 
hemia it was most clearly displayed. There the committee 
from the Wenzelbad, who had returned in triumph from 
their second mission, in the beginning of April, had served 
as the nucleus of a national committee, of which Count Leo 
Thun, who had been lately appointed President of the Ad- 
ministration, became the chairman, and which, divided into 
twelve sections, was employed in preparing, considering, and 
propounding plans for the first Bohemian Diet. The first 



r 



242 GENESIS OF THE 

sitting of this national assembly took place on April 1 3th, 
1848. On May 1st, it issued an appeal to all their Slavo- 
nian brethren in the Austrian monarchy, which had been 
prepared by twenty-one members (without the assistance of 
their president), inviting them to take part in a meeting to 
be held on the 31st May, in the ancient Slavonian city of 
Prague, of persons enjoying the confidence of their nation, 
for the purpose of submitting to the attention of the German 
parliament in Frankfort the interests of the Slavonian na- 
tion, and of considering what should be their line of conduct 
amidst the important events of the times, inasmuch as 
the parliament of Frankfort, by its claim to incorporate 
into the German kingdom those Austrian countries which 
did not form part of Hungary, had threatened to destroy 
the union and independence of the Slavonian provinces. 
The National Committee had previously sent a deputation 
to Yienna to present an address to the emperor against the 
plan for electing deputies from Bohemia to the Constituent 
Assembly at Frankfort, the subsequent rejection of which, 
on the 29th April, had doubtless occasioned the appeal to 
their Slavonian brethren on May 1st. The aversion of the 
Bohemians to the Germanizing schemes of Yienna, as evinced 
in their justifiable dissatisfaction at the removal of the 
minister Ficquelmont and the events of May 15th, with 
their consequences, bore an appearance of legality, and made 
itself known in Prague with some apprehension of proba- 
ble tumults. Out of the National Guard there, a Slavonian 
battalion was formed under the name of Swornost, with 
peculiar marks of distinction. The right of association 
was perverted to the establishment of clubs, as well of 
Slavonians as of Germans (called Slavia, Concordia, and 
so forth), who watched and opposed one another reci- 
procally. The Club, afterwards celebrated under the title 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 243 

of Slowanska Lipa (the Slavonian Lime Tree), was insti- 
tuted at that time, and at its general assembly on May 
24th already amounted to 600 members, and its numbers 
daily increased. The streets of Prague were continually 
the scenes of disorders, of greater or less extent, which, 
though at first apparently attended only by a crowd of Jews, 
from motives of curiosity, soon assumed a political character. 
The provincial chief, Count Thun, became an object of dis- 
like, because he was suspected of favouring the German more 
than the Slavonian party, and of favouring the election of 
deputies to the Frankfort parliament. In the sitting of the 
National Committee of May 23rd he defended himself from 
these charges, protesting that he had only obeyed the orders 
received from Vienna, and claiming, on this account, a 
renewal of the confidence which he had formerly enjoyed 
from his countrymen. How strong his desire was to with- 
draw the administration of the country from the influ- 
ence of the Vienna ministry, is proved by his having 
established a provisional government for Bohemia, the exis- 
tence of which first became known to the Minister of the 
Interior through the Prague newspapers ; a fact which 
would appear incredible, if the minister himself had not 
published the circumstance in the official part of the 
Viemia Gazette of June 3rd, 1848, 'No. 154. (See Appendix, 
Sup. 4.) 

The members of the provisional government established by 
the provincial chief of Bohemia on May 30, were Palacky, the 
historian ; J. TJ. Dr. Rieger ; Borrosch, bookseller and town 
commissary ; Count Albert Nostiz ; J. TJ. Dr. Brauner ; 
Count William Wurmbrand ; J. TJ. Dr. Strobach ; and 
Herzig, manufacturer in Reichenberg. The political senti- 
ments of these men, with the exception of the two counts, 
who did not become parliamentary deputies, were afterwards 

r2 



244 GENESIS OF THE 

intelligibly expressed in the parliaments of Vienna and 
Kremsier.* 

The opening of the Slavonian Congress, which took place 
with great pomp on June 2nd, was calculated still more to 
increase the national fanaticism. The singing of the old 
national church hymn, " Swaty Waclawe," and numerous 
speeches, in which, partly in sorrow and partly in anger, the 
late oppressed state of the Slavonians was described, joined 
to a representation of the state of Vienna during the oc- 
currences of May, occasioned a display which enabled a looker- 
on to foresee the violent disturbances which soon occurred. 
The general in command, Prince Windischgratz, who was a 
witness how the government of March 13th had, without 
preparation, opposed a popular tumult in Vienna, adopted 
the necessary military measures of precaution. These were 
here, as in other places, mistrusted as symptoms of a reac- 
tionary tendency. On June 7th, it had been resolved, in an 
assembly of the people at the Wenzelbad, to petition the em- 
peror to remove Prince "Windischgratz from Prague, and to 
send the Archduke Charles Frederick to take the command 
in Bohemia. Meetings of workmen, especially of cotton- 
printers, took place. On the 10th, a great meeting of the 
Aula, in the university building (the Carolinum), agreed to 

* The " Historische Politische Blatter/' for Catholic Germany, by 
Phillips and Gorres, furnishes, in the 4th part of the 25th volume, some 
explanations of Count Thun's actions, in order to prove their moral 
necessity. "Genesis" quoted merely facts as they were known, with- 
out judging of the principles and sentiments of the agents. 

It was the curse of that time, that the most honest intentions often 
missed their true course, because the political whirlwind darkened the 
horizon. 

On the 13th of June, Count Thun discovered a way to disclose his 
intentions, by the resistance which, whilst a prisoner in the Aula 
in Prague, he made with courageous disregard of self against the 
attempts of the mad partisans of Czechism to tempt him to lend his 
signature towards the furtherance of their schemes of separation. 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 245 

request the commandant to withdraw some troops from a 
military position, and also a battery of cannon, with which 
he threatened the town, by means of a deputation for that 
purpose, to which request a refusal was returned. On the 
12th, the division of the Swornost, singing Slavonian popular 
songs and insulting verses against the commandant, drew up 
before the house of the general, and paid no attention to 
the warning of the guard which was posted there, to desist. 
A shot came from an opposite house, intended for Prince 
Windischgratz, who could be seen in his room, and laid his 
wife, who was standing at his side, dead on the floor. This 
gave the signal for the combat : the greater part of the Ger- 
man population of Prague joined the military, and on the 
evening of the 14th it seemed to be brought to a termina- 
tion, when, in consequence of a multitude of armed Czechs, 
who arrived from the country during the night, it was again 
renewed, but soon afterwards ended in the complete sub- 
mission of the town, the dissolution of the National Com- 
mittee, many of whose members had taken part in the riot, 
either in person or by exciting the country people, and also 
produced the prorogation of the Bohemian Diet (on account 
of the interruption of the preparatory measures which had 
been undertaken by the above-mentioned committee), as well 
as the arrest of a great number of the rioters. 

This was the first triumph of lawful authority over insur- 
rection in that year of commotion, 1848, a result which, in 
Paris, Yienna, Berlin, Milan, and other unimportant towns, 
was either not attempted or not completed. The uncon- 
ditional surrender of an insurrectionary town was accom- 
plished by the courage, the discretion, and the firmness of 
Prince Windischgratz, in Prague ; Ms moderation and tran- 
quillity of soul could not be disturbed, either by the death of 
Ms beloved wife or by the wounds of his son ; he found re- 



246 GENESIS OF THE 

sources in his high vocation, as the defender of social order 
and of individual freedom which was connected therewith, to 
restrain and curb the rash despotism of fanatical democrats, 
who threatened to extend their influence over Europe, till on 
the banks of the Moldau their course was stayed. On this 
account he will not fail to shine in the history of our age as 
a great character, notwithstanding that fortune afterwards 
faithlessly deserted him, in the pathless and houseless steppes 
of a country, whose chief cities were compelled in the course 
of the following winter to submit to his sword. # His services 

* Should we not rather say he turned his back upon fortune ? Ir_ 
order to solve that question, we are not sufficiently acquainted with 
the circumstances which caused the recall of the victor of Kapolna and 
Godollo from the chief command in Hungary, just at that moment, 
when he had, with his small army, taken a centrical position behind the 
Rakos, near Pesth ; a position commanding those two important points, 
Ofen and the radius of blockading lines round Comorn. 

Before sentence is pronounced, the rule of law " audiatur et altera 
pars," should be observed. According to our knowledge, Prince Win- 
dischgratz has not, up to the present, broken silence as regards his 
Hungarian campaign. He also deserves, beyond doubt, a rich share of 
the outpourings of gratitude and admiration of rescued Austria, amidst 
the ovations which Vienna, in the autumn of 1849, most justly offered 
to the glorious vanquishers of the insurrection. 

The emperor had mver undervalued his services. The recall of the 
prince from the chief command in Hungary was accompanied by a most 
gracious cabinet letter, in which the emperor granted him temporary 
leave of absence, expressly reserving for him the chief command over 
all the troops on this side of the Isonzo. His companions in arms have 
given to him, the first vanquisher of the insurrection of 1848, a most 
honourable testimony of their admiration ; inasmuch as the chapter 
of the order of Maria Theresa, composed of them, has of its own 
accord, placed the name of Field-marshal Prince Windischgratz among 
the heroes deserving the grand cross of that order, though he had not 
solicited it, and notwithstanding that, according to the statutes of the 
order, it may only be granted — except on the field of battle — in those 
cases in which those who recommend it are able to prove before the 
chapter the execution of some warlike feat, which, in accordance with 
the rules of the order, justifies the claim. The special manner in which 
Prince Windischgratz, in 1850, attained to the highest distinction of 
that order, which is so highly respected by the noble and brave of all 
nations, seems to us to be the most important acknowledgment of his 
heroic efforts in behalf of the throne and of social order. 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 247 

in suppressing the efforts of the Slavonians in Prague to 
separate themselves from the empire, deserve the greater com- 
mendation, because his energetic conduct was neither called 
for nor supported by the ministry at Vienna. That minis- 
try, after its customary fashion, wished to. subdue this insur- 
rection by conciliatory measures, and accordingly despatched 
two commisssaries to Prague, who made their appearance 
there on the morning of June 14th. 

On the very evening of that day, the troops received orders 
to withdraw from their posts ; at the same time the nume- 
rous prisoners were set at liberty, and the house of Prince 
Kinsky, as well as the university building (the Carolinum), 
was abandoned by the military. On June 15th, in order to 
appease the rioters, it was announced officially that Prince 
Windischgr'atz had determined to resign his authority, as 
commandant of Bohemia, into the hands of his majesty, and 
that, on the restoration of tranquillity, the patrol service 
would be performed jointly by the soldiery and the National 
Guard. If the inhabitants of Prague had been, even tempo- 
rarily content with these concessions, the capital of Bohemia 
would have presented the same spectacle of victorious popular 
insurrection which had been afforded by Vienna. It is to be 
ascribed alone to the continued violence of the rioters, to their 
increasing unreasonable demands, and to their fresh resort to 
acts of disorder, as well as to the courageous conduct of the 
two commissaries, who, on June 16th, declared their mission 
ended, and returned to Vienna, that Prince Windischgratz, 
on the following day, insisted on the unconditional surrender 
of the town, and thus achieved the first victory of legiti- 
mate power over the revolution.* 

* The importance of this victory was perceived from the plans of the 
rebel chiefs, which were discovered in the course of the judicial exami- 
nations, and at the head of whom the notorious Bakunin, who was sub- 



24:8 GENESIS OF THE 

10. In all parts of the empire, where the Slavonians are 
mixed with other nations, the feelings of excitement which 
originated in the old Slavonian city of Prague could not 
be without their effect, even if they only evinced themselves 
by tumults, and, owing to the triumph of the authority 
of the government in that town, not by deeds of violence. 

At the same time, the party who advocated a junction of 
Austria with Germany, now raised their voices louder. 

Classes as well as individuals angrily addressed their neigh- 
bours who appeared to possess any privileges, with the excla- 
mation, " Otes-toi, pour que je rriy mette" and that, too, at 
the very moment when these same people wished to make a 
compact together about a common constitution, by means of 
representatives whom they were to elect. 

The prospect for the future was necessarily clouded. It 
was already sufficiently dark ; for, as school-boys who, free 
from the restraint of school, testify their joy by acts of rude- 

sequently arrested by the Saxon government, exhibited great activity. 
The division of the Austrian empire into several states, in accordance 
with the various nationalities, the restoration of Poland being of first 
consideration, and the establishment of the sovereignty of the people, 
were the ends in view, for which the struggle had been waged. The 
darkness in which that widely-ramified conspiracy is enveloped, may 
perhaps be cleared up, if only the results of the investigation into ano- 
ther plot should be published, which was also on the point of breaking 
forth in Prague in 1849. The same chiefs who conducted the plot of 
1848, figured in that of 1849. Their escape from punishment was 
owing to the abandonment of the proceedings against them, as decreed 
by the Emperor Ferdinand, on the recommendation of Dr. Bach, the 
Minister of Justice. The conspiracy which had been prepared by a 
society existing in Prague under the name of "Marcomania," for the 
12th of May, 1849, and which was accidentally discovered only within 
a few days before it was appointed to break forth, purposed, beyond any 
doubt, to carry into execution those plans which had been frustrated in 
1848 by the prudence and courageous resolution of Prince Windisch- 
gratz. The proceedings against the participators in that second attempt 
at revolution will consequently, owing to the publicity of the trial, 
according to the new regulations, greatly remove the veil which still 
conceals the causes and the tendencies of the movement in Prague during 
the Whitsuntide of 1848. 



BEVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 249 

ness and violence, so a great part of the citizens of Austria, 
who, in the words of the daily press, were happily released 
from thraldom and degradation, sought to proclaim them- 
selves as freemen, by evincing a disregard for the laws and for 
the magistracy, by a contempt for everything that had been 
previously honoured, and by ignorantly and incompetently 
thrusting themselves into those spheres of action which were 
partly already occupied by the executive authority, partly 
reserved for the future legislative functionaries. 

The capital was rife with such examples. Here two cor- 
porations usurped almost all authority ; they consisted of 
the Committee of the Citizens, National Guards, and Students, 
and of the Parochial Committee, consisting of a hundred 
members, who were chosen by the inhabitants, and which was 
instituted, after the events of May the 26th, in place of the 
Town Council that had been created in March. The working- 
classes, who claimed the right of being provided with 
employment, a right that had been indirectly conceded to 
them, assumed a fearful degree of authority. Three nations, 
who could only hope to obtain the accomplishment of their 
own selfish wishes by weakening the central power of Aus- 
tria — the Poles, the Italians, and the Hungarians — by means 
of numerous emissaries, used every art of persuasion and all 
the influence of eloquence and gold to keep alive in Vienna 
perpetual feelings of suspicion, mistrust, and discontent. 
The clubs of all sorts there existing afforded them zealous and 
active assistance. The most daring of these bodies was the 
Democratic Union, which held its meetings in the Hotel of 
the Homan Emperor, and its republican tendencies were so 
notorious, that it became an object of publicly acknowledged 
animosity to that section of the inhabitants of Vienna 
which was favourable to monarchy ; and these feelings of 
hatred, shortly after the opening of the Constituent Diet, 



250 GENESIS OF THE 

led to deeds of violence, for the suppression of which 
the National Guard was obliged to interfere. The earnest 
efforts of these National Guards to imitate the military, then- 
daily firings and field manoeuvres, their boisterous demands 
for cannon, and their entire deportment, particularly that of 
the Academic Legion, plainly showed that they would not 
shrink from a contest with the soldiery, if their seducers 
should require it. 

A capital in the condition of Vienna at that time, which 
seemed to be the scene of every discord between different 
races of people, societies, and individuals, and which found 
itself in a condition like that which Hobbes describes as 
" Bellum omnium contra omnes" was clearly not suited to be 
the place of meeting for the deputies of a diet, through 
whose instrumentality an act was to be completed, which 
would for the first time give to the people a share in the 
rights of sovereignty, viz. the revision of the chartered con- 
stitution of April 25th. 

11. This important Diet was convoked to meet in Vienna 
on June 26th, 1848. The election took place pursuant to 
the provisional election law of May 9th, so far as its enact- 
ments were applicable to the second chamber, that is, upon 
the broadest basis (without limiting the right of voting by 
any census), in two gradations, namely, first by choosing the 
electors, and afterwards by electing the representatives from 
them. 

Where any doubt existed on the subject of the elective 
enactments, it was to be removed in a way favourable to the 
popular interests by the Minister of the Interior. The 
government officials were distinctly ordered, by means of a 
ministerial letter of June 5th, to abstain from interfering in 
any way with the elections, and to secure to those who were 
entitled, the full exercise of their privilege. On the other 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 251 

liand, the various committees of corporations and the clubs 
increased their activity in preparing lists of candidates for the 
representation of the people, according to their own views, and 
in recommending them to the electors through the columns of 
the press and in every other way. In consequence of the 
ministerial order which had been issued, the official mana- 
gers of private estates, and the magistrates in the parishes, 
were quite passive amid the democratic election intriguer 
which ensued, and did not dare to set up a Conservative 
on their own side in opposition to a Radical candidate. The 
owners of property and the members of the privileged pro- 
vincial Estates, who a few months before were anxiously em- 
ployed in defending their privileges against every real or 
fancied infringement on the part of the government, were 
now perfectly indifferent and inattentive in the exercise of 
their elective rights, and in the use of their moral influence 
over the electors. The country clergy also, for the most part, 
maintained a like indifference. Those members of either 
class who interfered actively in the election, acted not in a 
conservative but in a revolutionary sense. Neither did any 
champion stand forth from amongst the other classes of 
society and boldly propose, either by word or writing, the 
election of moderate and discreet persons. The press, free 
and licentious, by means of exaggerated statements, sophisms, 
lies, and calumnies, excited the agitators against all lawful 
authority, and their statements remained unopposed and un- 
contradicted, because there were but few friends of tranquil- 
lity who possessed the power necessary for that purpose, and 
such as made the attempt had not the means of commanding 
the attention of the people, for the daily press had ever 
made a point of exciting instead of tranquillizing the public 
mind. The destructive party could, therefore, without 
any opposition, employ every means to influence the 



252 GENESIS OF THE 

elections in their own favour, even to the employment of 
threats and bribery ; the exertions of the opposite party 
were weakened, because the subordinate government offi- 
cials neglected to oppose the activity of their adversaries, 
partly from fear of being accused of acting in opposition 
to the commands issued by the Minister of the Interior 
on June oth, and partly because they possessed no adequate 
resources for that purpose. Thus, then, the elections 
for the Constituent Diet were left to the results of chance, 
or to the exertions of that party whose chief interests 
lay rather in the continuation than in the termination of 
the revolution. 

12. In the time that elapsed between the preparation for 
the election and the opening of the Diet, controversies 
were continually carried on upon the question, whether the 
emperor should return to Vienna and personally assist at the 
opening, or whether he should authorize his brother (the 
presumptive heir to the throne), or some other of the imperial 
princes, to represent him. On the part of the court, its return 
to the capital depended on securities being given against a 
repetition of the events of May ; whilst, on the other hand, 
those who held power in Vienna demanded guarantees for the 
people against the imputed reactionary designs of the court 
party. The demands of the court were founded on justice 
and necessity. But, instead of asking the agitators in Vienna 
for guarantees in general terms, the sovereign ought to have 
directed the use and employment of all means which his 
executive power could exert to render a guarantee from his 
subjects wholly unnecessary. But this was not done. The 
popular leaders, however, were able to settle their demand 
for guarantees, which was destitute of all pretensions to jus- 
tice, in a more practical manner. They demanded cannon 
for the Vienna National Guard, and received from the impe- 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 253 

rial arsenal six entire and complete batteries for their use, 
and along with, them the means of enforcing whatever they 
might further demand. 

After long discussions with the ministry, the emperor de- 
termined to send his uncle, the Archduke John, as his repre- 
sentative to Yienna. The Minister of Trade and Agricul- 
ture, Baron von Doblhoff, who had returned from Innsbruck, 
announced his arrival on June 2 3rd, and the commencement of 
the representative functions, which were undertaken by the 
Archduke, on the following day. An imperial proclamation 
from Innsbruck of June 16th, 1848, announced that the 
Archduke John was fully authorized, until the emperor 
should come to Yienna, not only to open the Diet, but 
also to transact all the duties of government, which required 
the imperial assent. (See Appendix, Sup. 5.) 

The day on which these duties of representation com- 
menced, placed the Austrian empire in a condition of which 
the history of kingdoms scarcely furnishes an example. For, 
in addition to the viceroy already appointed for Hungary 
and Transylvania, a second viceroy for the other parts of 
the monarchy, furnished with all the rights of sovereignty, 
now appeared upon the stage, while the sovereign himself 
remained in the distance, a mere spectator of the scene. It 
has often happened that sovereigns have allowed them- 
selves to be temporarily represented by a person enjoying 
their confidence ; but that in the same state two viceroys,, 
independent of each other, each in a different part of 
the empire, and in a moment of vital conflict between 
those two parts, should be empowered to exercise all the 
authority of majesty at the same time, is an event which, 
within our knowledge, has never yet happened in any king- 
dom. But that responsible ministers should make this ex- 
periment, by drawing up such a proclamation as Wessenberg 



254: GENESIS OF THE 

and DoblhofF prepared, instead of persuading the emperor 
to convoke the Diet and the Ministerial Council in the 
place where circumstances had compelled him to establish 
his residence ; this must remain inexplicable, unless we are 
prepared to admit, that responsibility can only be imposed 
upon a ministry, when their actions infringe the liberties of 
the people, and not when they threaten to dissolve the 
empire. If the representatives of foreign powers were in- 
vited to follow the emperor to the seat of his court, why 
could not the ministers also have been summoned thither, 
and the Diet convoked to meet in the same place ? The 
arrogant claim, so violently defended by the daily press of 
Vienna, that Yienna alone could be the seat of the central 
power and of the Diet, should have undergone a practical 
contradiction, in place of being admitted. The emperor and 
the court should have known this. But by once admitting 
the maxim of binding himself to constitutional forms, even 
before the formation of a constitution, and of subjecting his 
orders to the approval of a ministry, the emperor must have 
encountered difficulties in carrying out a measure of so 
decided a character, because his ministers, who were subject 
to the despotism of the Vienna clubs, would not assist in 
the preparation of the requisite imperial rescript, which is 
proved by a fact established on the authority of credible 
persons, namely, that the order given to the ministerial 
president to invite the diplomatic body to follow the court 
to Innsbruck, was not obeyed by that minister, and there- 
fore the intended invitation was given by the court itself im- 
mediately to the papal nuncio, who communicated the same 
to the other foreign embassies. Hitherto a constitutional 
sovereign, in similar cases, was always provided with the 
means of changing his ministry. An attempt was certainly 
made to resort to this plan. The Governor of Galicia, Count 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 255 

Francis Stadion, was summoned to Innsbruck to form a 
new ministry. But that highly-gifted and enterprising man, 
who was known to be opposed to the domineering rule of the 
police, as it existed previous to March, and was at the same 
time an energetic character, who had succeeded, after the 
events of March, in subduing throughout Galicia those revo- 
lutionary aspirations which, originating in Vienna, threat- 
ened suddenly to overwhelm all the other provinces, was of 
opinion, that the moment for his acting with effect as minister 
had not yet arrived, and the emperor found himself obliged 
to request the Baron von Pillersdorf, the provisional president 
of the ministry, who had acted in the interim from May 16th, 
when all the ministers had resigned, to continue to conduct 
the business of the state, and therefore to abstain from all 
energetic steps : this was done by means of a cabinet letter 
addressed to him, from Innsbruck, in gracious terms, which 
was afterwards published in the Vienna Gazette. An im- 
portant question now demands our attention : whether, within 
the whole circuit of the Austrian monarchy, no other man 
could be found than Count Stadion, possessed of sufficient 
weight and devotion to the imperial house, and regard for the 
welfare of the state, to undertake the application of such 
energetic measures % The King of Prussia found in Count 
Brandenburg a man who undertook a task still more difficult 
and dangerous. "We believe that Austria was not more desti- 
tute of noble and firm characters than any other country, and 
that ministers could have been found ready to apply a strong 
remedy, with the emperor's authority, to subdue the mob- 
government of the Vienna democracy. The error seems to have 
been, that no person could be found in the court at that critical 
moment to defend such steps, if they had been even proposed. 
The two ministers then in Innsbruck could not do so; for one of 
them, Baron Doblhoff, was a creature of the Vienna agitators, 



256 GENESIS OF THE 

and the other was an old man, who had become estranged 
to the monarchy and to the affairs of state. And thus it 
happened, that, to the injury of the honour of the throne and 
the welfare of the empire, the arrogant claim of Yienna, that 
it should continue to be the seat of authority over the other 
parts of the monarchy, even when it was no longer the abode 
of the sovereign, received a practical recognition, by the con- 
vocation of the Diet, and the mission of an imperial viceroy 
to Yienna. 

13. The Archduke John, on June 25th, announced the 
commencement of his duties as viceroy by a proclamation, 
which, though it was not drawn up by any minister, was 
(doubtless) approved of by the administration. (See Ap- 
pendix, Sup. 6.) If we compare this jDroclamation with the 
one in which the emperor, on May 16th, 1&48 2 announced to 
the world the convocation of a Constituent Assembly, to con- 
sist of only one chamber, as well as the abolition of any pro- 
perty qualification for the electors by whom it was to be chosen, 
we shall feel astonished at the want of harmony between these 
two important documents, the latter of which should have 
been a mere extension of the former. The emperor, for in- 
stance, declared, on May 1 6th, that the constitution of May 
25th should be previously submitted to the consideration of 
the Diet, and that to effect the establishment of the constitu- 
tion in the most certain manner, by the Constituent Assembly, 
only one chamber was to be elected for the first Diet, and 
that accordingly there should be no property qualification for 
the electors. In what sense the ministry understood the above 
words will clearly appear from the before-mentioned letter of 
the Minister of the Interior to all the provincial governors, 
dated June 5th, 1848, on the subject of taking the votes, 
since the following passage occurs therein : — " The task of 
the Constituent Diet, immediately after its meeting, wilt 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 257 

consist in considering the nature of a constitution to be 
given to the monarchy. The results of this deliberation 
can alone answer the question, whether this Constituent 
Diet is empowered in any manner, or under any modifi- 
cations, to take into its consideration any farther sub- 
jects of legislation, organic regulations, or important ques- 
tions of administration." The imperial viceroy, who was 
sent to Vienna to assist at the opening of the Constituent 
Diet, in his proclamation of June 25th, 1848, neither 
mentions the revision of the constitution of April 25 th, 
nor adverts to the task of framing a constitution im- 
mediately, to take priority over all other business, but 
speaks cumulatively of the necessity of constructing a new 
and firm foundation for important changes in every branch of 
legislation, and for providing new resources to satisfy the 
most pressing demands. Did the constitutional ministry, 
when in accordance with their duty they considered these 
expressions of the viceroy, overlook their inevitable re- 
sult, namely, the promulgation of the doctrine, that the 
first Diet, which was to consist only of one chamber, 
should consider itself called upon to act also in a legislative 
and controlling capacity 1 Or was it their intention to 
clothe this Diet with larger powers than the emperor 
and his ministry had originally intended, as it had been 
convoked by the emperor only to consider the constitution 
of April 25th, and chosen in a manner which seemed well 
adapted for the tranquil attainment of this object 1 We 
shall be justified in adopting the latter opinion, if we read 
the speech with which the imperial viceroy, four weeks 
later, opened the Diet. Even in this address from the 
throne, which, after parliamentary fashion, must have been 
adopted in Ministerial Council, and have expressed the sen- 
timents of the cabinet, there is nothing said of giving priority 

S 



25S GENESIS OF THE 

to a revision of the constitution, but a promise is made at 
a future clay to lay before tlie Diet certain plans and pro- 
posals with respect to the regulations of finance which had 
become necessary. (See Appendix, Sup. 7.) Whether it 
arose from neglect or intention that the orders of the 
imperial proclamation of May 16th, and the ministerial in- 
tentions published on June 5th, were departed from, the 
greater part of the responsibility must fall on the ministers, 
for the expenditure of time and money, for the hasty destruc- 
tion of existing institutions without providing other and 
better ones in their room, for the injury done to the execu- 
tive power/ for the degradation of the spiritual and secular 
authorities, for enkindling and encouraging a civil war, 
and, in fine, for all the evil which the Diet, during its 
seven months' duration, gave birth to by its conduct in 
interfering with everything but the objects for which it was 
convoked. 

14. Between the assumption of the viceroyalty by the Arch- 
duke John and the solemn opening of the Diet, on July 22nd, 
by him as the representative of the emperor (after seven 
previous preparatory sittings of the representatives of the 
people), a period of four weeks intervenes, which is remark- 
able for the two following events, one of which occurred 
beyond the dominions of Austria, — viz. the election of the 
archduke to be the Vicar of the German empire; the other 
happened in Vienna itself, — viz. the fall of the Pillersdorf 
ministry. 

The first of these indicated to the Austrian monarchy the 
consequences which a division of the central power, had it 
been of longer duration, must inevitably occasion. The second 
might have been viewed as a blessing, had it sprung from 
different causes and produced different results than were ac- 
tually the case. The delay of a month in opening the 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 259 

Diet was partly occasioned by procrastinating the elections 
in Bohemia (the result of the Prague disturbances), and 
partly by the choice, in Frankfort, of the archduke, on June 
29th, to be the irresponsible vicar of Germany. He set out 
on his journey to Frankfort, to undertake his new office, on 
July 8th, and returned on the 17th of the same month, to 
represent the emperor at the first solemn sitting of the Diet 
in Vienna. 

The day of his departure was the day of the downfall of 
Pillersdorf 's administration. The occasion of this event was 
afforded by the Committee of the Citizens, National Guards, 
and Students, who alleged that they had discovered in Baron 
Pillersdorf tendencies hostile to freedom, and favourable to 
the system that had existed before March ; and that in his 
speech on the election of deputies for the Yienna Diet, 
he had declared his attachment to the old bureaucratic 
system. A motion was thereupon made to expel, uncondi- 
tionally, all supporters of the old system, and to send depu- 
ties from the committee to the representative of the emperor, 
petitioning him to entrust Doblhoff with the formation of a 
new ministry, in which, with the exception of Wessenberg, no 
member of the subsisting ministry should hold a place. This 
proposal, which was adopted in a sitting of the committee, on 
July 8th, 1848, by 156 votes against 5, must have convinced 
Baron Pillersdorf that he had in vain, since the month of 
March, courted popular favour, that most fickle of all co- 
quettes, with the most complete devotion, and with the 
sacrifice of his reputation as a statesman, with the abandon- 
ment of the honour and safety of the throne and the welfare of 
the monarchy, for he was doomed to see himself shamefully 
rejected, at the very moment when he thought he had 
reached the goal. The same party whose favour he had 
sought, named his ministry the Squirrel Ministry, which, 

s2 



260 GENESIS OF THE 

from its half-and-half character, had fallen to the ground — a 
rebuke which must have been the more keenly felt, as he was 
now, indeed, prostrate.* 

Pursuant to the wish of the united committee, Doblhoff 
was charged with the construction of a new ministry. Imme- 
diately after the return of the archduke, the proposition of 
Doblhoff received his approval. Thereupon Pillersdorf, 
Sommaruga, and Baumgartner left the ministry ; Doblhoff 
took charge of the portfolio of the interior ; Dr. Alexander 
Bach, that of justice ; Theodore Hornbostl, that of trade ; 
and Ernest von Schwarzer, that of public works ; the other 
portfolios remained in the same hands as before. The super- 
intendence of public instruction was provisionally entrusted 
to the Minister of the Interior, and the Baron Dr. Feuch- 
tersleben was made Under Secretary of State ; the Finance 
Ministry also received an Under Secretary of State in the 

* The " Historische-Politische Blatter, &c," in the second number of 
the twenty-fifth volume, looks upon the steps which the Democratic 
Society at Vienna recommended to Archduke John to be taken against 
Pillersdorf, and which that society published in its journal, "The 
Democrat," of the 17th of July, 1848, as one of the most efficient 
causes in procuring the removal of that unpopular minister. That 
journal traces this result in the condescending manner with which the 
representative of the emperor, on the 8th of July, received at his 
residence the deputies of the said society (Deutsch, Volkl, Hank, 
Lbbenstein, and Silberstein), on which occasion they showed to him 
the necessity of a change of the ministry. It further traces it in the 
soothing words which the archduke — according to the democrat Silber- 
stein — is said to have exchanged with these deputies. We think it a 
matter of moral impossibility that an archduke of Austria should have 
attached any importance to the wishes of those emissaries of the 
Democratic Society. 

If it be supposed, however, that he had really answered in so bene- 
volent a manner as represented, we should be induced to believe that in 
so doing he merely imitated, in the face of those unruly demagogues, the 
example of Alexander of Macedonia, who, in order to tame the un- 
manageable Bucephalus, first pacified him by his caressing hand, and 
then let him feel, forcibly and ably, the reins and spurs. After the arch- 
duke's departure from Vienna, the latter task was unfortunately left to 
be performed by a man who was in no respect an Alexander. 



DEVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 261 

person of Baron Yon Stifb. By this formation of the ministry, 
only two persons were continued in the service of the state, 
who had been ministers previous to March — Kraus, Minister 
of Finance, and Latour, of War ; Wessenberg, the Minister of 
Foreign Affairs and President of the Ministerial Council, had 
lived seventeen years in retirement out of Austria, and the 
others had never held office. Doblhoff's previous occupa- 
tions we have already explained. Bach had some reputation 
as a young advocate, and had displayed great zeal in preparing 
the events of March, but as soon as he saw the fire which he had. 
occasioned burst forth, and all hope of extinguishing it disap- 
pear, than he is said to have been driven to a state bordering 
on despair. In the Political Central Committee of the National 
Guards before April 26th, and in the committees that were 
formed after that date, he laboured with boldness and discre- 
tion in the path of law and order. Hornbostl was a soap-maker, 
and was celebrated in the Lower Austrian Trades Union as a 
warm advocate of reform. Schwarzer had commenced a mili- 
tary career in the artillery as the son of an officer in the impe- 
rial army ; but having obtained permission to undertake the 
instruction of an Egyptian, who was residing in Gratz, as 
an artilleryman, he prolonged his stay there without leave, 
on which account he was brought to trial, and he subse- 
quently renounced the military service altogether. He then 
found employment in editing the Trieste Lloyd's Journal ; 
after the events of March he undertook the continuation of 
the celebrated Vienna paper, which was half official, being 
edited by the privy councillor Pilat, and was known by the 
title of OesterreichiscJier Beobachtar ; but as he could not adopt 
Pilat's views of the government, he soon changed the above 
for the AUgemeine OesterreicJiische Zeitung, so celebrated for 
its violent support of the opposition. The Under Secretary 
of State, Feuchtersleben, had been vice-director of the 



262 GENESIS OF THE 

medico-surgical school in the University of Yienna ; the 
Under Secretary of State, Stift, by fortunate speculations on 
'Change, at the time when his father was surgeon to the 
Emperor Francis and a privy councillor, had become rich, 
and had many years previously retired from the business of 
a wholesale merchant ; he was well known as an active 
opposition member of the Lower Austrian Estates. The 
great majority, therefore, of the new cabinet, when it met 
the parliament, was not chosen from the ranks of the odious 
Austrian bureaucracy,* and might have escaped the imputa- 
tion of entertaining any attachment to the old system, even if 
the hesitating course of the former administration had been 
followed by firmer measures. But this could not be expected 
from a ministry who owed their existence to the supporters 
of the Yienna agitation and democracy, namely, to the 
United Committee of the Yienna Citizens, National Guards, 
and the Academic Legion, established for the preservation 
of peace and order, and for the defence of the rights of the 
people. Such a ministry, forced on the representative of 
the emperor at the moment of the opening of the Diet 

* How surprising ! The very Minister of Finance, who belonged to 
that bureaucracy, and who, having been nominated by the Emperor Fer- 
dinand, in March, 1848, had (until his alreadj^-appointed successor had 
arrived at maturity) been temporarily tolerated among the ministers of 
July, — that very minister was, in October, not compelled to escape 
\>j flight or concealment from the fury of the populace, like the rest of 
his colleagues, who had risen either from the ranks of the men of 
progress among the Estates, or from those of the liberal speakers in 
the juridico-political societies, or finally from those men of the day 
who had distinguished themselves by the soundness and apparent prac- 
ticability of their principles. Further, in the days of October, he 
remained, with calmness and courageous determination, at his post, and 
thus, with self-denial, averted incalculable evils. Here, then, the 
minister, who up to this hour has been charged, without interruption, 
with the finances — the bureaucrat, the ancient member of the council of 
state, the Baron Kraus, — furnishes us with a proof that popular favour 
suffices not to enable a minister to act and to maintain himself, but 
that in this respect other qualities are able to secure success. 



EEVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 263 

by the usurpers of state power, could not vindicate the 
authority of which the sovereign had been deprived ; for 
in the very concession that had been made to this com- 
mittee, in changing the ministry at their request and in 
jjursuance with their wish, at the very moment when 
the lawful representatives of the people were assembled and 
at their posts, immediately upon the opening of their 
meeting to express their sentiments in a parliamentary 
manner on the subject of the Pillersdorf administration — 
in such a concession there was exhibited a new and a 
successful triumph of usurpation over legality. In fact, 
the third day, which followed the solemn opening of the 
Diet, proved that that celebrated Committee knew how to 
valuo and to take advantage of its triumph ; for on July 25th 
that body, through its former president, the deputy Fischhoff, 
presented an address to the Constituent Diet, which he 
declared to be a programme of its future course of proceed- 
ing. In this address the committee commenced by stating, 
that the Diet, in place of the lawful title of Constituent 
Diet, should of its own accord adopt the title of Sovereign 
Diet, a title most offensive to imperial majesty. The 
committee then allude to their own formation on May 
26th, and to the ministerial announcement of the following 
day, by which they were recognized as an independent autho- 
rity, convoked for the preservation of order and the safety 
of the city and for the protection of the rights of the people. 
They then inform the assembly of the representatives of the 
people of Austria that they, up to that hour, are the only 
true popular authorities, and that they have unanimously 
resolved to continue as such until the Diet shall pro- 
nounce their dissolution, or until the ministry shall institute 
some other popular authority, or shall reorganize the present 
one in such a manner that the preservation of order, peace, 



26-1 GENESIS OF THE 

and safety may with confidence be entrusted to them ; 
finally, they inform the Diet that they, as the pro- 
tectors of popular rights, will still assist any individual 
who may be injured in his rights, with such aid as every 
citizen could demand from the proper authorities under 
the existing laws, for which purpose they would interfere by 
mediation, and, if necessary, with measures of force. 

How determined the Committee of Safety were to carry 
out this plan, and how well they understood how to secure 
the means of doing so, may be seen in the care winch they 
took to draw the common people into their alliance. On 
July 30th, with their consent (or, rather, under their ar- 
rangement), a solemn religious service was celebrated, on the 
Josephstaclt fortifications, by the notorious priest, Professor 
Fiister, for the benefit of the workmen employed in the pub- 
lic buildings, " in order to return thanks for the freedom 
which had been so happily obtained, and for the opening 
of the Diet, and to pray to God for happy results to the 
same." And thus, even feelings of religion were employed 
to secure to a revolutionary committee, which had become 
strong and bold by the weakness of the government, the 
attachment and the confidence of that class of people, so 
numerous and so easily led, whose strong arms might have 
served as pillars of support to the power of government. 

The revolution in Austria (in the strict sense of the word) 
was not only brought to a close with the solemn opening of 
the Constituent Diet, but was even fully completed. It 
might and ought to have been brought to a close on March 
15th, for by the imperial proclamation of that day, the par- 
ticipation of the people in the government was declared to 
be a state maxim. The revolutionary commotions which 
occurred after March can only be ascribed to those feelings 
of mistrust generally prevalent, and to the consequent 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 265 

doubts, whether the promise of the emperor to convert the 
absolute monarchy into a constitutional one would be 
realized, doubts which, from selfish motives, were fostered 
and encouraged by the agitators. Such doubts ought to 
have vanished on July 22nd, for, upon the solemn opening 
of the Diet, the representation of the people, in a popular 
sense, had become an established fact. A further revolution 
could only have been possible in two cases ; if, for instance, 
the constitutional throne should be overturned by the people 
and replaced by a republic, or if the emperor should entertain 
a design of reverting to absolutism. Neither of these events- 
happened. The disturbances which took place hi Vienna 
between the opening of the Diet and its adjournment to 
Kremsier, were not attempts to produce a new revolution in 
Austria, but were insurrectionary revolts of the inhabitants 
of Yienna against the constitutional executive power. If 
indeed a few persons on those occasions had some republican 
tendencies in reserve, and if the Diet, moreover, over- 
stepped its authority by considering itself to be not only 
a constituent but a sovereign assembly, there was no 
attempt made, even in the alarming and bloody days of 
August 23rd, September 13th, October 6th, and the follow- 
ing, to establish a revolution in a republican sense. The 
horrors and crimes of those days were, it is true, the result of 
popular violence let loose by the revolution and by the weak- 
ness of those who exercised the authority of government ; 
but they were not a continuation of the revolution in Aus- 
tria. The atrocity of October 6th, in particular, could have 
been avoided by timely measures of prevention ; for it is a 
fact that, in the beginning of October, the murder of Latour 
was publicly spoken of, in a numerously-attended meeting of 
demagogues at the Odeon, as indispensable, to prevent designs 
of reaction falsely attributed to the court party, of which 



266 GENESIS OF THE 

the Minister of War even received a notification from a 
retired officer who was present. Even if his own courage 
would not permit him to adopt measures for his personal 
safety, the open threat of such a crime should not have been 
a secret to the ministry charged with providing for the 
public protection, and should not have been slighted. The 
removal of the court to Ohnijtz, the summoning of the 
ministry thither, the subjection of the capital to military 
authority without any discussion, and the adjournment of the 
parliament to Kremsier, were the first attempts to re-assert 
the authority of the government after the days of March, 
which, moreover, had the effect of subduing the popular 
violence. The President of the Ministry, Baron von Wessen- 
berg, in following the emperor to Olmutz, and by counter- 
signing, as the only minister who remained with him, the 
convocation of the Diet at Kremsier, imparted to that 
order a legal form, and by this act, previous to his leaving 
the ministry, nobly expiated the error of his conduct at 
Innsbruck, by means of which, as we have before remarked, 
the arrogant pretensions of the capital had been recog- 
nized. * The excesses of which the Diet was guilty, doubtless 

* At page 8 of the pamphlet, "Fragments on the part I took in the 
Events of the Years 1848 and 1849/' written by Frederic Thiemann, 
deputy of the Imperial Diet, and published, a short time back, by 
Gottlieb Hanse Sonne, at Prague, further information is given 
relative to the journey of Baron "Wessenberg to Olmutz. The author, 
after having referred to his conversation, on the 8th of October, with 
Prince Windischgratz, at Prague, and to his having accidentally learned 
the presence of Baron Wessenberg in that town, proceeds thus : — " I 
w T ent to look for him, and found him in the hotel of the Black Horse, 
deeply moved, and still under the influence of the frightful impressions 
created by the terrible events at Vienna, which were very near causing 
the loss of his own life. On my questioning him, what he intended to 
do, he communicated to me his resolution to proceed to his estates in 
the Breisgau." 

"I related to him what I had learnt about the departure of the 
emperor ; I directed his attention to the dangerous and painful condition 
of the monarch, and I implored him to hasten to his side, in order, as 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 267 

occasioned disorders and dangerous agitations through all 
portions of the state, but cannot be considered as attacks on 
the constitutional monarchy, and consequently not as attempts 
at revolution. We cannot take into consideration the conduct 
of individual members of the Diet. According to psycholo- 
gical rules, these attacks were the necessary consequence of that 
system which, since the month of March, had been adopted 
by the supporters of the government and had been attended 
by lamentable consequences, a system of inconsistent sub- 
mission to those demands which were made upon the ministry 
by assemblies without any lawful authority, in the name of the 
Austrian people. What was more natural than that, looking at 
what such orators and brawlers, who usurped the title of re- 
presentatives of the people, had obtained, it should be esteemed 
a species of honour by their lawful representatives to exercise 
a similar controlling influence over the executive authority *? 
But their efforts were not directed to overturn the execu- 
tive, and therefore were not revolutionary. With just as 
little reason can the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly 
in March, 1849, and the proclamation of the second chartered 
constitution on the 4th of the same month, be considered as 
a revolution in an absolute sense, since these acts of sove- 
reign authority did not contemplate depriving the people of 
all participation in the legislative power and of all control over 
the administration, but rather sought to establish it more 

responsible minister, to consider and to countersign the measures necessary 
for the preservation of the empire and of the throne. I also represented to 
him that he and the minister Bach certainly ought not, under the existing 
circumstances, to resign, as, by so doing, the object of the rebels, as 
also the revolution itself, would be farthered. Baron Wessenberg felt 
the weight of these reasons, and merely replied that he thought it 
hardly possible to come to an understanding with Bach. To effect that 
understanding, I stated my readiness to carry a letter for Bach to 
Vienna. Wessenberg then gave way to my representations, and imme- 
diately resolved to confer with the commanding general." 



268 GENESIS OF THE 

rapidly than the Diet could have done, in the full enjoyment 
of all constitutional privileges, and to assert at the same time 
the constitutional rights of the crown. 

And thus we have attained the point where the editor of 
the Genesis, having described the revolution in Austria in 
its embryo state and at the moment of its birth, and having 
accompanied it from its years of childhood and ignorance to 
the full attainment of its majority, must surrender the pen to 
the historian. 

But in order, however, completely to finish the task of 
the Genesis, it seems to us necessary to subjoin a brief de- 
scription of the causes which were the origin of the Magyar 
revolution, which has, up to the present moment (August, 
1849), not been perfectly subdued. 

The overthrow of the ancient constitution of the Estates of 
Hungary and its dependencies, which had been sworn to by the 
king, had been brought to a conclusion in the month of March, 
and it was effected, not in a revolutionary, but in a legal 
manner. By a series of royal resolutions, on the occasion of 
different representations voted by the Presburg parliament, 
the following decrees had been made on the subject of the 
constitution of the country. 

" That in future the executive power shall only be 
exercised by the king, or, in his absence, by the palatine, 
as viceroy, through, the instrumentality of an independent 
Hungarian ministry, every member of which shall transact 
his official business in Buda-Pesth, and shall also reside 
there, with the exception of one member, who shall attend 
the court ; that the palatine, during the residence of the king 
beyond the limits of Hungary, shall exercise, independently 
of the royal consent, all the authority of the king's majesty, 
with the exception of appointing the chief ecclesiastical dig- 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 269 

nitaries and the barons of the empire, and of performing 
some acts of grace, as well as with the exception of sending 
the army out of Hungary, and granting military com- 
missions; that the Archduke Stephen is to be personally 
irresponsible; that, with the royal consent, the nomination 
of the Ministerial President belongs to him, and that he 
shall propose the other ministers, subject to the royal ap- 
probation, and that the ministers may be impeached with 
respect to matters of their administration by the Lower 
Table (House), and shall be tried before a court to be selected 
by the Upper Table from their own members, the trial to be 
conducted publicly, and to the exclusion of the king's pardon, 
except in cases of a general amnesty.*' — Art. III. 

" That in future the parliament shall meet annually in 
Pesth, in a public session ; the laws to be given for the future 
may be approved by the king, even in the course of the an- 
nual session ; the election of representatives shall last for three 
years ; the appointment of the president of the Table of Mag- 
nates shall belong to the king; the president of the second 
Table shall be elected by the Table of Magnates; the proro- 
gation, closing, and dissolution of the Diet shall belong to 
the king; the last privilege shall be exercised only on con- 
dition that the meeting of a new Diet shall take place 
within three months after the dissolution." — Art. IV. 

" The Table of Deputies to consist of 377 members, to 
be chosen by direct election from all parts of Hungary and 
its dependencies, inclusive of the military boundaries; the 
active right of election to belong to all native-born subjects, 
independent, and twenty years old, who are not undergoing 
punishment (for certain crimes specified), who shall possess in 
the royal towns, or in the districts provided with regular ma- 
gistrates, a house or land of the value of 100 guldens, or shall 



270 GENESIS OF THE 

possess a quarter of a session'"' in any other district, or who 
are domiciliated tradesmen, having continuous employment 
for one assistant, or are shopkeepers, or manufacturers, or 
who can prove the possession of a certain annual income of 
100 guldens (convention money) arising from land or 
capital ; the passive right of election to belong to all the 
above-mentioned persons, after their twenty-fourth year, 
when they can comply with the rule of law which declares 
the Hungarian to be exclusively the language of legislation." 
—Art. V. 

" That all inhabitants shall be equally taxed." — Art. VIII. 

" That the burdening of the land with the robot, tenths, 
and pecuniary payments, as also all landlords' manorial courts, 
shall be abolished." — Art. IX. 

" That the ' aviticitat ' (viz., the privilege, according to 
which the descendants of those to whom originally a free- 
hold property was granted by the crown, can ever afterwards 
lay claim to that property, even when it may have passed 
into other families) be on principle abolished." — -Art. XV. 

" That the county-congregations be changed into perma- 
nent committees until the re-organization of the counties." 
—Art. XYI. 

" That the county-restorations (periodical elections of the 
county magistracy) be suspended until the directions of the 
next parliament." — Art. XVII. 

" That all received religions, to which also shall belong 
the United and not-United Greek religions, shall be equally 
tolerated."— Art. XX. 

" That all preventive censorship shall cease." — Art. XVIII. 

" That a National Guard be established, to superintend 

* The session was an entire peasant's fief, varying in extent according 
to the qualities of the soil. It comprised from sixteen to forty acres of 
arable, and from about six to twelve acres of meadow land. — Ed. 



KE VOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 271 

the security of person and property, as well as of public 
tranquillity and of internal peace." — Art. XXII. 

" That the national colours and the national arms be once 
more established in all their ancient legality." — Art. XXI. 

" That in case the Diet, to be shortly held in Tran- 
sylvania, shall resolve upon the union of that country with 
Hungary, then that in the first Hungarian Diet which 
shall be held in Pesth, seats and a right of voting in the 
Table of Magnates shall be conceded to the Transylvanian 
regalists, and that 69 representatives, to be elected in Tran- 
sylvania, shall be added to the Table of Deputies." — 
Art. VII. 

These resolutions contained everything that was necessary 
to convert the Hungarian constitution, and also the ancient 
aristocratic constitution of the Estates of Transylvania (in 
case it should be iinited with Hungary), into a representa- 
tive system, by introducing into it the democratic element, 
and to dissolve the band between the other portions of the 
empire and the newly constituted countries. According to 
the hitherto existing custom, and pursuant to the royal decree 
of April 11th, 1848, they commenced their operation in the 
manner expressed in the articles of law of the Hungarian par- 
liament of the year 1847-48. A review of the expressions 
in the royal resolutions with which they were legally 
approved during the sitting of the Diet, even if they should 
differ from the expressions in the articles of law, is not 
allowable, because the so-styled '-most humble representa- 
tions " of the Diet, and their consideration by the king, 
only deserve the name of proposals, to which two referees 
had agreed, but which were subsequently to be drawn up in 
a valid form by agents on both sides. Commissioners ap- 
pointed expressly for that purpose acted as such agents, 
at the close of each Hungarian Diet, being fully autho- 



272 GENESIS OF THE 

rized by the king and by the Estates. They formed the 
mixed commission of agreement, whose duty it was to frame 
the resolutions, which had been approved by the king, into 
articles of law, which both parties afterwards adopted and 
recognized as binding. We allude especially to this trans- 
action, because, in considering the most important of all 
the thirty-one articles of law of the last Presburg Diet, 
namely, the third, which has reference to the formation of 
an independent Hungarian responsible ministry, it is not 
without great weight, as our readers will shortly observe. 

The 11th of April, 1848, was therefore the last day of the 
existence of the ancient Hungarian constitution. A new 
form of government was established in its place, without any 
revolution, but founded on totally different maxims, which, 
inasmuch as it had in view exclusively the interests of the 
Magyars, and not their relations to the adjoining territories 
(Croatia, Slavonia, and the sea district), and their union with 
the other parts of the empire, would have accorded with the 
demands of the age and might have taken root, inasmuch as it 
did not set out by overturning all subsisting institutions, but, 
like a graft which is inserted upon an old tree, was intended 
to infuse new spirit into the ancient system, that had become 
dear to the Magyar people. But the other races who were 
to be affected by these proposed changes, particularly the Sla- 
vonians, saw that it was the object of the Magyars to unite all 
the other nationalities with their own, and gradually to ex- 
tinguish them, to which end the separation of the Hunga- 
rian government from the central administration was to 
serve as a means. This conviction, supported by previous 
experience, soon called forth the most determined opposition 
into action. 

The Croatian and Slavonian members of the Diet, at the 
discussions which took place before both Tables, did not 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 273 

raise their voices against these innovations, because the ter- 
rorism exercised by the Magyar party had destroyed their 
freedom of voting, and because they hoped that the Crown, 
moreover, would reject the propositions of the Diet, which 
could not have any other effect than to divide the empire 
into two hostile camps. But they never ceased to describe, 
in the most lively colours, both in their own Slavonian 
country and in Vienna, the evils which they apprehended, 
and which were inseparable from the proposed alteration 
of the government in Hungary. Their warnings were 
listened to by their own nation ; for a provisional Na- 
tional Committee immediately assembled in Agram, which 
called together the National Assembly on March 25th, 
whose demands were carried to the foot of the throne by a 
numerous deputation, as we have already mentioned in our 
account of the events that happened during the latter half 
of the month of March. The imperial cabinet was also well 
aware of the danger that threatened the united monarchy, 
but they only issued the admonition of the apostolic king, 
which is also known to our readers, that the change of the 
government in Hungary was not in any manner to injure the 
unity and integrity of the monarchy, and then filled up 
the office of Ban, which, since the termination of the Diet 
of 1833-34, had remained vacant, by the appointment of 
Baron Jelacic. 

By the experience of many years, the Croatians and Sla- 
vonians had become too well acquainted with the objects of 
the Magyars, to expect any effect from the royal admonition, 
unless it were supported by effective measures. They strove, 
therefore, with indefatigable zeal, to prepare their measures, 
under the guidance of their Ban, in order that they 
should not be taken by surprise, if, in consequence of the 
clear intentions of the Hungarian ministerial president, 

T 



274 GENESIS OF THE 

Count Louis Batthyany, who was for many years leader 
of the Magyar opposition party among the Magnates, 
and of his influential colleague, Kossuth, the most celebrated 
of the Magyar agitators, the conditions appointed by the 
king and adopted by the Diet, or the enactments of the 
Article of Law III. sec. 26 (according to which all the juris- 
dictions of the country and of their adjoining provinces were 
to be maintained unimpaired in their previous legal efficiency), 
were to be abrogated by the ministry at Pesth. In either 
of these cases they were determined to repel the injustice with 
force, without desiring the Crown to take an active part in the 
cause ; but with the expectation that this conduct on their part 
would not be considered as a rebellion against the king, whose 
loyal subjects they were determined to remain, dependent on 
the central administration, and without destroying that con- 
nection with Hungary which had lasted for centuries, and 
without suffering the country to become subject to Magyar 
domination. These loyal sentiments, which were shared by 
the Hungarian dependencies, that had been placed under the 
influence of the Ban, could not be well received by the 
Hungarian ministry, bent as it was on separation. Disputes 
soon arose between them, because the Ban disapproved of seve- 
ral of the measures of the Hungarian ministry, which infringed 
on the rights of his nation. The ministry accordingly di- 
rected an imperial cabinet order to the Ban (which was pub- 
lished in the Pesth Gazette of May 10th, 1848), whereby he was 
admonished to obey the orders that should reach him from 
the ministry and the viceroy, within the sphere of his official 
duty. It was also at the same time notified to the military 
commander in the kingdom of Hungary, that for the future, 
the Hungarian army should receive all commands and orders 
through the Hungarian ministry, and should direct its com- 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 275 

mmiications to the same ministry, which orders were espe- 
cially extended to the military frontier. 

The object of these orders, particularly of the latter, could 
not escape the attention of the Croatians, who entertained a 
justifiable mistrust of the authorities at Pesth. They could 
only find hope in their own efforts ; and accordingly, in the 
latter half of the month of May, they commenced their pre- 
parations to obey the commands of the Ban, in case he 
should call upon them to protect their privileges and their 
liberty against the attacks of the Magyars, if necessary, by 
force of arms. 

On the other hand, the Hungarians thought they could 
observe, in the position which the Croatians began to as- 
sume, symptoms of an agreement with the coiut of Yienna ; 
although they might have concluded, from their own fanati- 
cal zeal for their own language and nationality, that another 
nation, quite as determined and patriotic as themselves, would 
not remain idle, if attempts were made by any neighbouring 
people to suppress their liberty and their national language. 

Buda-Pesth, the rival of Yienna in acquiring supreme 
dominion, was not willing to remain behind the latter in 
making demonstrations against the imperial government. 
With this object it was intended to display the hostile sen- 
timents of the people, by announcing an entertainment of 
cats'-music to be given to the commander of the forces, a 
high and influential man, and the only person in Hungary 
who was still directly dependent upon a Yienna ministry. 
But the intention was defeated, not without bloodshed, by 
the interference of the military, who were justly infuriated 
thereat. The withdrawal of the commander from Hungary 
was the consequence of that well-merited repulse ; a step 
the more to be deplored, as the anger of the Magyars on the 

t 2 



276 GENESIS OF THE 

one side, and the opposition of the Croatians on the other, 
were only the more aroused. 

But the individuals who exercised the royal authority in 
Buda-Pesth, were soon afterwards successful in raising a 
storm of royal anger against the Ban, who was* an object 
of their suspicions and hatred. They had previously failed 
in an attempt to force him from the scene of his official 
efficiency, and to call him to the Magyar metropolis, and also 
to paralyze his authority by despatching to him the F. M. L. 
Baron Hrabowski, who was the general commanding in Sla- 
vonia. Jelacic was called to account in a very serious and even 
rigorous manner by the king, with respect to his conduct 
as Ban, and ordered for this purpose to appear without delay 
at the foot of the throne.* About the middle of June, 
attended by a numerous deputation, he left Agram, and 
proceeded to the seat of the court at Innsbruck, whither, 
also, on the 2nd of June, the Hungarian Ministerial Presi- 
dent, Count L. Batthyany, hastened, and on the 19th of the 
same month the palatine and imperial viceroy, the Archduke 
Stephen, proceeded thither, accompanied by the minister 
Count Szecheny from Buda-Pesth, the Hungarian Minister 
for Foreign Affairs, Prince Esterhazy, having been previously 
sent to attend upon the court there. The charges against the 
Ban were supported by facts, which might, it is true, not 
have been strictly in accordance with the letter of the 
3rd Article of Law of the year 1847-48; but the accused 
proved that they were fully in accordance with the spirit of 

* In the review of the " Genesis/' published in the " Historische-Poli- 
tische Blatter, &c," we are denounced as being too brief in the descrip- 
tion of this episode. We acknowledge it, and add in No, XV. of the 
Appendix the imperial decree from Innsbruck of the 29th of May, 1848, 
which summons the Ban to the foot of the throne, as also the two mani- 
festoes, which, as he, on the 10th of June, had not yet appeared at 
Innsbruck, were on that day issued against him, and on the 19th of the 
same month published in the official part of the Viennese Gazette. 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 277 

the second section of that law, which section points out the 
condition under which it might be dispensed with, and upon 
the fulfilment of which its validity depends; that the point, 
therefore, in view, was to understand mutually how the 
fulfilment of that condition could be established, and to 
inquire what protection should be extended to the Slavonian 
lands which were united with the crown of Hungary, to 
defend them against the destruction of their nationality by 
the Magyars. And so the threatening storm passed happily 
over him, and he indulged the hope that a kindly healing 
of the differences between Hungary and her neighbouring 
territories would be effected by the Archduke John, who, at 
his own request, was authorized by the emperor king to take 
measures for that purpose. Upon his return to Agram on 
June 28th, 1848, amid the greatest display of joy, he circu- 
lated through all quarters of the country the news of these 
gratifying prospects.* 

* We must here relate a fact, confirmed by trustworthy authority, 
which shows the character of the hero whose name is now universally 
famous. The publication of the two manifestoes of the 10th of June 
happened at a time when Jelacic was travelling. The reception 
he met with at the residence of the court, which was by no means un- 
favourable, and the orders which he there received, to arrange, with the 
assistance of the Archduke John, in an amicable manner, the dispute 
with the Hungarian ministry, had virtually counteracted the effect of 
those two manifestoes. One would suppose that the ministers at 
Innsbruck would have consequently adopted the natural course of 
giving to the Ban an explanation of the affair, and also of informing the 
public. However, this was not done. Jelacic did not know anything 
of those two manifestoes before his return home, when in Lienz, a small 
town in the Tyrol, he found them in the Viennese Gazette of the 19th of 
June, which had accidentally fallen into his hand. His countrymen, 
who during his absence had learnt the existence of the manifestoes 
without having equally been informed of their having since become 
virtually void, suspected that some violence might have been done to 
his person, and were prepared to set everything at stake in his defence. 
He just then re-appeared in Agram, and, without seeming sensible of 
the unpleasant occurrence, he immediately employed the whole of his 
influence to change their anger into enthusiasm for their king and the 
royal house. 



278 GENESIS OF THE 

If the sincere wish of the court to preserve internal har- 
mony and the connection of all parts of the monarchy unim- 
paired had been supported by the Hungarian authorities, 
as willingly as by the Ban, the soil of Hungary, which 
was so blessed by the hand of Nature, would not have had 
to lament being made the theatre of the heart-breaking 
spectacle of a struggle between European democracy and 
anarchy on the one Side, and the dominion of law, right, and 
social order on the other. The upright disposition of the 
sovereign could not employ the remedy which was required, 
namely, that of giving authority, by an exercise of resolute 
determination, to the spirit of the laws, above the mere 
letter of the same. By the letters-patent issued in Presburg 
on April 11th, every act of the apostolic king required the 
co-operation of a responsible Hungarian minister. As that 
ministry, however, was not appointed by the free choice of 
the sovereign, like the Viennese ministry, but by the will of 
the people, expressed by the Diet, the co-operation of any 
of its members could not be expected in a royal act, which 
they could foresee would be hostile to the national feelings, 
particularly as their responsibility was no fiction, as in the 
case of the Viennese, for in a short time they had to ap- 
pear before the Diet, which was already summoned to meet 
in Pesth on July 2nd, and the law, according to which 
they might be impeached and tried by the national repre- 
sentatives, had been approved by the king on April 11th. 
Under existing circumstances it was impossible to think of 
dismissing the Hungarian ministry and forming a new one 
in the interest of the united monarchy. There was, there- 
fore, no other way left to subdue the Hungarian agitators 
than an attempt at pacification, by employing a plenipo- 
tentiary, a plan which had been tried without success in the 
case of Austrian Italy. The appointment of the Archduke 



REVOLUTION ■ IN" AUSTRIA. 279 

Jolm to undertake the task was the most proper that could 
be made. His call to Frankfort, as German vicar of the 
realm, interfered, and left the question undecided, whether 
the Hungarian-Croatian pacificator would have been more 
successful in his undertaking than the Italian one had 
been. # 

The unsuccessful attempt to destroy the power of the Ban, 
and the continuation on the part of the Croatians and Slavo- 
nians of their preparations for defence, in which they were 
joined by the Servians, notwithstanding the threat of F. M. 
L. Hrabowski, at Karlowitz, to emplo}^ force against them, 
on account of the Servian National Congress having pro- 
ceeded to the election of a Patriarch and Woywode, served 
to increase the fury and distrust of the Magyars against 
all who did not submit and do homage to their nation, but 
more especially against the court, which they accused of 
faithlessness, for refusing to give free scope to their desire 
to exercise full sway and uncontrolled dominion over all the 
nations belonging to the kingdom of Hungary. 

With such dispositions as these, the magnates and the 
representatives of the people, who had been elected by the 
the new law, in pursuance of a writ issued by the pala- 
tine on May 20th, in the name of the king, met together for 
the first time in Pesth, on July 2nd, 1848. The adjacent 

* It is said that the archduke, before his departure from Vienna, had, 
at his residence, a personal interview with Count Louis Batthyany, the 
president of the Hungarian ministry, and the Ban Baron Jelacic, 
and stated to each the assurance of his belief in their loyalty, their 
attachment to the imperial house, and their patriotism, and, finally, 
expressed the hope that honourable men, as they were, would 
doubtless come to an agreement with regard to the means for the 
termination of so dangerous a conflict. Thus began and ended the 
attempt at mediation, for, with the president of the Magyar ministry, 
the word " agreement " was synonymous with the unconditional subjec- 
tion of Croatia, Slavonia, and the so-called military frontier, under the 
palatine and governor, Archduke Stephen, and the Magyar ministry. 



280 GENESIS OF THE 

countries*' sent no members to this Diet. Only a few 
magnates known to be partizans of the Magyars attended. 
The absence of the Croatians and Slavonians was the most 
prudent step which they could take under the circumstances, 
for, with a recollection of what had taken place shortly be- 
fore, — viz. on May 30th, — at the Diet of Klausenburg, 
which was to have been the last for the Grand Duchy of 
Transylvania, they might have foreseen the utter impossi- 
bility of making their voices audible, not to say their votes 
effectual, in that assembly, if they should attempt to raise 
them against the pretensions of the Magyars. 

Transylvania, by entering into the union with Hungary 
in the Diet, which had been summoned by the Crown 
to meet at Klausenburg on May 29th, had been guilty of 
political suicide. 

Since the apostolic king had, by the decree of April 11th, 
sanctioned the seventh article of law of the Presburg 
Diet of 1847-48, the convocation of the Transylvanian 
Estates, and the adoption of the Magyar project to unite 
Transylvania with Hungary, had become an indisjjensable 
necessity in the catalogue of government parliamentary pro- 
positions. But the Transylvanians were by no means 
bound to accept this proposition. Indeed, immediately upon 
the publication of the propositions of the Diet, the majo- 
rity of the Transylvanian population, including the Saxons 
and the Wallachians, had entered the lists to oppose them. 
The former of these, as one of the three nations of the 
Grand Duchy, possessing an equality of privileges, could offer 
weighty objections. The latter, although in number they 
exceeded three-fourths of the population, were not repre- 
sented as a nation in the Estates, and were therefore only 

* " Partes annexse regno Hungarise, " was the legal description of Croa- 
tia and Slavonia, under the ancient Constitution of the Estates. — Ed. 



DEVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 281 

entitled to announce their just wishes against the projects 
of the Magyars, by means ot petitions and representations. 
But even before the opening of the Diet, the Magyar party 
made every exertion, with the governor, Count Teleky, 
at their head, to prevent or to weaken the opposition 
against an incorporation with Hungary. The plans em- 
ployed for this purpose were by no means consistent with 
the claims of true freedom, or of equal justice. On May 2nd, 
the governor had proceeded to Hermannstadt, in order to 
restrain the Saxons from offering any opposition, first, by 
trying the arts of persuasion, and then by inspiring terror. 
He used his exertions to throw obstacles in the way of send- 
ing a deputation of Wallachians to the sovereign, to implore 
the throne to protect their nationality, by refusing permis- 
sion to the Wallachian Bishop Schagura to set out on such a 
journey. The latter, in pursuance of a resolution adopted at 
a congress of the Wallachian nation, at Blasendorf, on May 
15th, should have headed a deputation which was to proceed 
to the foot of the throne, and had regularly applied for leave 
for that purpose, which was refused, and he was not even 
allowed to go to Hermannstadt, the seat of his bishoprick. 
Public demonstrations of all kinds prove that the Saxons and 
Wallachians, as well as the Croatians and Slavonians, had 
penetrated the real intention of the Presburg Diet to ac- 
complish the subjection of ail the races that were not of 
Magyar origin, and to destroy the unity of the crown and 
the links of the monarchy ; and they were determined to 
offer every resistance to such projects. How excessively the 
Hungarian ministry feared such opposition, may be proved 
by the measures which they adopted to counteract it. For 
this purpose, the ministry did not consider it sufficient to 
rely merely upon the military forces of Hungary, but they 
succeeded in obtaining an imperial order, by virtue of 



282 GENESIS OF THE 

which, even all the troops in Transylvania were subjected to 
the Hungarian palatine, and this was done even before the 
decree for carrying the union of the nations into effect. The 
cabinet letter containing the order was issued from Inns- 
bruck on May 29th. 

Under these strong feelings of aversion which were enter- 
tained by the great majority of the inhabitants of Transyl- 
vania towards the union with Hungary, it must appear sur- 
prising that, immediately after the opening of the Diet, 
the decree for effecting this important and eventful measure 
should have passed without decided opposition, if we were 
not aware that every possible precaution had been pre- 
viously taken to prevent all opposition in the Diet. It 
was therefore announced by the governor, during his stay 
in Hermannstadt, to the Saxon university and to the autho- 
rities on May 3rd, that the question of the union of Hungary 
and Transylvania might be regarded as settled before-hand, 
since it would be proclaimed at once by the Diet, through 
the galleries and amongst the people, and immediately 
afterwards the Transylvanian Government would dissolve and 
become practically subject to the Hungarian ministry ; and 
should the Saxons wish to annex any conditions to the 
union, he declared that, as governor, he could not be respon- 
sible for the safety of the Saxon representatives beyond the 
walls of the Diet. Under such circumstances, the same 
farce of a Dietal discussion was repeated at Klausenburg, 
on the subject of destroying the independent constitu- 
tion of Transylvania, as the Presburg Diet had enacted 
at the negotiations for the destruction of the constitution of 
the Estates in Hungary. In neither of these assemblies could 
a member act upon his own sentiments, but only as he was 
allowed by the wires that were pulled from the outside. 

The Decree of Union, which had been parsed at Klau- 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 283 

senburg on May 30th, was forwarded with such despatch to 
Innsbruck, for the sovereign's assent, that the governor was 
able to announce the same to the Estates on June 19th. 
Previously to this (on June 14th), 'the Hungarian ministry 
had given an answer to the Estates of Transylvania on being 
informed of the Decree of Union, which was of such nature as 
clearly to testify the sentiments and opinions of that minis- 
try. To the expression of joy at this union was subjoined a 
declaration, " that they were astonished at the greatness of 
the proud conviction which they entertained, that being from 
henceforth united, their common country would no longer 
be subject either to a cabal, or to a violent blow ; that on 
the day when these two countries, which for three hun- 
dred years had been united, became divided, their weakness 
and humiliation had commenced ; that they had each be- 
come slaves, and had disappeared from the catalogue of in- 
dependent nations ; that through their union, their national 
reconciliation would be published hi the sight of Europe, which 
the ministry might publicly declare would subsist for ever." 
Their animosity towards Austrian supremacy, and their 
anxiety to shake it off, could not possibly be announced 
to the world in plainer language, without proclaiming open 
rebellion, than was declared by this address of the Hun- 
garian ministry to the Diet of Transylvania. (See Appendix, 
Sup. 9). 

What opinion the Hungarian ministry itself entertained 
respecting the sympathy of the greater part of the Transyl- 
vanian people for Hungary may be read in the nature of 
the instructions with which the above answer was accompa- 
nied. They commenced the exercise of their power over the 
Grand Duchy by omitting to style it by its historical and real 
name, and by expressing the necessity of subjecting the 
territories which had been originally included under the title 



284 GENESIS OF THE 

of Transylvania, on account of their great distance from the 
centre of the country, Buda-Pesth, to a royal commissioner, 
in the person of the Hungarian keeper of the crown, Baron 
Nicholas Yay, for the purpose of establishing an exceptional 
government -authority, which should be strong enough to op- 
pose the agitations and insidious animosities that were 
everywhere displayed. The government of Transylvania 
was confided to this commissary, and the power of establish- 
ing martial law was entrusted to him. 

And in this manner the abolition of the name of Transyl- 
vania from the list of European countries, the appointment 
of an exceptional government-authority, and the hand of the 
executioner, were necessary, after a separation of three cen- 
turies, to keep these fraternal people once more happily 
united. 

The Hungarian Diet, which was opened by the pala- 
tine on July 2nd, 1848, was summoned to consider the 
pressing measures which were necessary to be adopted, in 
consequence of the extraordinary state of the country, pur- 
suant to the Article of Law passed by the Presburg Diet, 
which had been dissolved by the king on April 11th of the 
above year. The palatine announced, in his speech from the 
throne, that such was the nature of his task. When we 
consider what was stated in that speech, and what was 
omitted therefrom (see Appendix, Sup. 10), we can once 
more plainly observe the true designs of the Hungarian 
ministry, by whom that speech from the throne was of 
course prepared. It spoke of the preservation of the in- 
tegrity of the Hungarian crown ; of maintaining the invio- 
lable sanctity of the laws ; of the security and welfare of the 
country ; of the unity and inviolability of the regal crown 
of Hungary ; of regulating, through the Hungarian Diet 
whatever the unimpaired united interest of the regal throne 



REVOLUTION ES AUSTRIA. 285 

and constitutional freedom and the welfare of the country 
demanded : it declared that the adoption of the laws pro- 
mulgated by the last Presburg Diet was the free expression 
of the royal will, and that the king was determined always 
to preserve in their integrity, and unimpaired, those laws 
which he had approved. But, on the other hand, it 
did not utter one word about the imperial throne, and 
the relations of Hungary to the countries united with 
her by virtue of the Pragmatic Sanction ; not one word 
about the regulations of the 3rd Article of Law, sec. 2, 
according to which, the inviolable maintenance of the 
unity of the crown and the monarchical bond was also as- 
serted by laws, which were always to be preserved unim- 
paired ; and, further, not one word upon this point, — that 
the royal consent was obtained for sanctioning the resolutions 
of the Presburg Diet only because the Hungarian Estates 
had pronounced the points of that paragraph to be a 
conditio sine qua non. By the silence preserved on the 
above points, the object of the Magyar rulers, to whom 
the possession of both talent and power must be conceded, 
was craftily and safely expressed, to the attainment of which 
object all the exertions of the pure Magyars were alone 
directed. 

Thus, in the month of July, 1848, two assemblies of popu- 
lar representatives held their meetings in the same state, 
one in Pesth, the other in Vienna, each of which ardently 
pursued their separate designs, and the majority of whom 
sympathized in one point alone, viz. in a feeling of mistrust 
towards the throne ; and only aided each other in the attain- 
ment of one object, viz. the subjection of all government to 
their own will. 

The Hungarian Diet afforded the ministry, which was 
responsible to them, and which entertained similar views 



286 GENESIS OF THE 

with themselves, a strong support against the apostolic 
king ; in. all measures the object of which was to explain, in 
one sense, and give validity to, the 3rd Article of Law of 
the last Presburg Diet, in order that the complete sepa- 
ration of Hungary and of the incorporated territory of 
Transylvania from Austria might ensue ; those countries 
being intended at first to continue under the nominal do- 
minion of the same sovereign, but which union was only 
to be preserved until an opportunity offered for effecting a 
separation. The Austrian Diet, which ought to have been 
summoned to afford a powerful support from the resources 
of the Austrian empire to the apostolic king, for the sake of 
resisting such efforts at separation as were made by the 
ministry and the Diet in Hungary, completely misunder- 
stood this high duty which was imposed upon them by the 
interests of the countries which they represented, and, on the 
contrary, directed all their exertions to weaken the power 
of the emperor. 

The emperor was thus prevented from adopting the only 
measures left for successfully preserving the monarchy from 
being broken up, to which measures, on that unlucky day 
when the concession of a separate, independent, and respon- 
sible ministry was made to Hungary, the hopes of all per- 
sons were directed, who wished to preserve unimpaired the 
unity of the Austrian empire, namely, the firm assertion of 
the condition on which the acknowledgment of a new 
form of Hungarian government depended. The Diet of 
Pesth, aided by the ministry there, used every exertion to 
strengthen and increase the means which had been prepared 
by the latter to get rid of that condition. The command of 
all the Hungarian and Transylvanian troops in the coun- 
try, a claim which had formerly been asserted successfully 
for the palatine, was extended to the command of the for- 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 287 

tified places and the providing munitions of war, the regi- 
ments were established on a war footing, the raising of new 
Honved battalions was vigorously pursued, and the soldiers 
were sworn to the constitution. The Hungarian Minister of 
Finance, who had the control of the whole income of the 
country, by an artful plan employed the credit of the state 
for his owm interests, which were hostile to the views of the 
monarchy, inasmuch as, with the consent of the palatine, he 
created a Hungarian paper currency of five and ten gulden 
notes, the amount of which, it is true, was at first limited, 
but which, for want of sufficient control, was afterwards 
increased as occasion required. 

The Magyar leaders, once in possession of the means neces- 
sary to carry on war, made no secret of their intention to 
compel the adjoining Slavonian countries, by force of arms, 
to take part in their plans to promote separation and to fur- 
ther the Magyar influence. Convinced of the determined op- 
position they would meet in those quarters, and uncertain of 
victory, since the full power of the Austrian emperor might 
be opposed to them, they used all the arts of seduction to win 
over the German population of Austria to their cause. They 
represented that the intentions of the Ban of Croatia were 
bent not so much on preserving the unity of the empire and 
the Slavonian nationality as upon restoring despotism and the 
subjection of other nations. Aware of the influence which 
the German parliament in Frankfort then exercised over the 
Germans in Austria, and particularly over those men hy 
whose hands the power of government in Vienna was 
practically wielded, they held secret negotiations with this 
parliament. They thus succeeded in making spies and 
partisans of the Vienna reformers and German unionists 
both within and without the Diet, whom they amply pro- 
vided with money to influence the populace to activity, 



288 GENESIS OF THE 

whereof the Gth of October affords testimony, on which day 
the insurrection in Vienna broke out, occasioned by 
the imperial troops being despatched to Hungary. 

The emperor and king, under such circumstances, could 
have recourse to no other measures than those of coer- 
cion. He and his brother, to whom, as the Agram Gazette 
had already announced, the Ban was directed immediately 
to apply in doubtful cases, directed their attention beyond 
all things to prevent a bloody conflict between the Hun- 
garian troops and those of the Ban. The Ban honour- 
ably used his influence with his people to restrain their 
martial ardour from hasty deeds of violence ; but with 
respect to the military levies in the country of the Magyars, 
the Austrian Minister of War was the only man who could 
co-operate for the attainment of this humane purpose ; 
for, since the unity of the army was still maintained in ac- 
cordance with the 8th section of the 3rd Article of Law, 
passed by the Diet of 1847-48, a direct influence over the 
troops in Hungary and Transylvania was reserved to him 
in some degree, although, next to him, they were obliged to 
obey the commands of the palatine. That his exertions were 
often not in unison with those of the Magyar War Minister 
and Commander in Chief may be explained by the opposite 
views which they followed, without our attributing, from 
such contradictions, the suspicion of treason to the Hunga- 
rian nation. But the passions of the Hungarians and their 
Vienna supporters were incapable of taking these calm views. 
On this account the Minister of War, Count Latour, was 
slandered, hated, and devoted to death. He himself was 
aware of this, as is shown by the letter which he wrote to 
his son a few days before his murder, and which was subse- 
quently published in the newspapers. 

The memorial presented by the Austrian ministry to the 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 289 

Diet of Pesth, published in the Acts of the Diet, No. 66, 
on the subject of the union subsisting between Hungary 
and the other countries of Austria, the imperial mani- 
festoes of September 22nd and 25th, in consequence of which 
latter the command of all the troops and armed bodies in 
Hungary (it does not appear by whose nomination) was un- 
dertaken by the Field-marshal Lieutenant Count Francis 
Laniberg, and the appearance of this commander in the 
character of an extraordinary commissioner to restore peace, 
three days after his appointment to a seat in the Diet of 
Pesth ; these circumstances offer the most eloquent proof 
of the sincere exertions of the emperor-king once more to 
introduce peace into the country in a legal way by an agree- 
ment with the popular representatives without bloodshed. 
With the cruel murder of the imperial and royal messenger 
of peace, the gauntlet was thrown down by the Magyars to 
their king and to the Emperor of Austria at the same 
moment ; and both duty and honour required that it should 
be taken up. 

This hasty sketch of the events in Hungary and the 
countries appertaining to it will serve to explain the origin 
of the Hungarian revolutionary war. 

When we consider the progress of events in Hungary 
from their first commencement, there can be no doubt that 
the concession of an independent Hungarian responsible 
ministry, which was made to the Diet of Presburg in 
the latter half of the month of March, and the exercise of 
executive authority by the Palatine, whenever the king should 
be absent, through the whole extent of the country, com- 
bined with the personal irresponsibility of the Archduke 
Stephen, as Palatine, were the sources of all the evil. 

If the question be asked, whether the sovereign, who, in 
order to save the land from a fearful conflagration, suffered 

U 



290 GENESIS OF THE 

liimself, from the goodness of his heart, to be prevailed upon 
to make such concessions, possessed the right afterwards to 
withdraw them, we must declare that he unquestionably 
possessed this right. The change in the old Hungarian con- 
stitution was effected at Presburg, on April 11th, 1848, by 
means of a compact between the Hungarian king and the 
nation, represented by the Diet. By virtue of this compact, 
the nation was bound to the condition clearly set forth in the 
3rd Article of Law, sect. 2 ; viz. that the unity of the crown 
and the connecting links of the monarchy should be main- 
tained unimpaired. But in the practical application of such 
a concession, the performance of this condition was evidently 
impossible. A compact depending upon a condition which is 
recognised to be incapable of fulfilment, must, in accordance 
with legal principles, be considered as not binding. The com- 
pact which was made on April 11th, 1848, between the Estates 
of Hungary and their king, on the formation of an independ- 
ent Hungarian responsible ministry, is, therefore, null and 
void. The Magyar writers wished to consider and to intro- 
duce into this question the Pragmatic Sanction, as a decisive 
authority that, in that charter, the union between Hungary 
and the other parts of the monarchy was alluded to only in 
the nature of a mere personal union, satisfied by the identity 
of the individual as sovereign (as the union between Sweden 
and Norway has been effected in later times). Without en- 
tangling ourselves in a controversy about the meaning of the 
Pragmatic Sanction, and the construction of the words therein 
used, " indivisibiliter et inseparabiliter" we may venture to 
assert that the solution of this question of law does not at all 
depend on the words of the Pragmatic Sanction, because a 
question which is founded on the basis of a new contract 
must be decided according to the words of the new contract 
alone, and not according to the expressions of a former one- 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 291 

But in the second section of the 3rd Article of Law, the 
Pragmatic Sanction is not even mentioned. If it was alluded 
to in the representations addressed by the Diet to the king, 
and in the transactions between him and the Hungarian 
Diet, and also in the royal resolutions which appeared in 
the course of the Diet, these circumstances can have no 
influence in the solution of the question of law before 
us 3 because, as appears from what we have before men- 
tioned, such propositions are only entitled to the value of 
preliminary observations, which require to be reduced to a 
legal form by a commission selected for the purpose, before 
they can acquire the title and force of a convention between 
the Crown and the Estates. But in the Article of Law 
drawn up by the select commission, submitted to the 
king by the Presburg Diet, and approved by the former, 
no document of any kind is referred to (and this omis- 
sion is clearly not without design), but on the contrary, for 
the sake of greater certainty, a form of expression is intro- 
duced, in intelligible words, which admit of no doubt, which 
the negotiating parties during the discussion, by an appeal 
to the Pragmatic Sanction (and which the Estates, in the 
introduction to the collection of the thirty-one Articles of 
Law of the Diet of 1847-48, again repeated), sought to 
establish as a conditio sine qua non — that is, " the unimpaired 
maintenance of the unity of the throne and the connecting 
links of the monarchy." Whoever, in this quotation of the 
paragraph so often alluded to, can only recognise the meaning 
of a personal union, through the medium of one and the same 
bearer of both crowns, must either maintain, in the teeth of 
every principle of justice, that in a contract between two 
persons, it is lawful for one party, at his pleasure, to consider 
the words that impose an obligation upon him as not bind- 
ing (in this case, for example, the words, " and the connect- 

u 2 



292 GENESIS OF THE 

ing links of the monarchy "), or he must concede to the Apos- 
tolic King and the Emperor of Austria the right to utter the 
maxim of Louis XIY. — " L'etat, cest moi" Neither of these 
alternatives will be admitted at the bar of reason and 
justice. 

In expressing our opinion that the 3rd Article of Law, 
for the maintenance of which the war was commenced in 
Hungary, depended on an impracticable condition, and there- 
fore could not justly be enforced, we must at the same time 
acknowledge that both the contracting parties were subject 
to the charge of having endangered the welfare of the coun- 
try by entering into an agreement which contained in itself 
a palpable contradiction, that could be perceived beforehand. 
The explanation of the manner in which the kindness of the 
sovereign was constrained to such a course will be partly 
found in the description already given of the events that 
occurred in the latter half of the month of March. We 
may add, further, that in the extremely difficult situation in 
which the king at that time found himself, he was anxious, 
at any price, to avoid the approaching danger of a rup- 
ture with the Presburg Diet, and therefore no attention 
was paid to that voice in the cabinet, which even then 
would have preferred such a rupture to the concession of 
the demands of the Magyars. The humanity of the empe- 
ror could not imagine the possibility of being reduced to 
the extremity of being compelled to resort to arms against 
the Hungarian people, who up to that time had been loyally 
devoted to him ; he rather placed his full confidence in the 
sense of justice, the magnanimity, and the attachment of 
that people, and cherished the hope, that the Hungarians 
themselves, so soon as the impracticability of the stipulated 
condition had been explained to them, would assist in modi- 
fying the concession which had been made to them under 



i 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 293 

the pressure of necessity, a concession that tended to destroy 
the unity of the empire and their own welfare together. 
The Archduke John, in the capacity of imperial repre- 
sentative, had already expressed such a hope in his speech 
on the opening of the Austrian Diet with the follow- 
ing words : — " In relation to Hungary and its neighbour- 
lands, a knowledge of the upright sentiments which actuate 
its people induces me to expect a satisfactory settlement 
of the questions which are still in agitation." And this 
would doubtless have occurred, if it had not been the object 
of the seducers of the Hungarian people to accomplish those 
very ends which the Estates had promised to avoid. But 
that the confidence of a noble-minded prince should be de- 
ceived in such a manner; that Ferdinand the Good should 
experience from the Hungarians nought but hostile sus- 
picion in return for his confidence, hatred for his kindness, 
and ingratitude for his goodness, and should find himself, 
for these reasons, compelled to abdicate the crown, and that 
his brother and presumptive heir to the throne should suffer 
the same fate, because he had taken part in the resolutions 
of the sovereign, — all this will fill a disgraceful leaf in the 
history of Hungary, for which the Magyars, that once noble 
and high-spirited people, will, on a calm retrospect of the 
past, curse those seducers, who succeeded in exciting their 
warm imaginations, their fiery blood, and their daring 
courage, to aid in accomplishing their own interested objects 
and establishing their worthless theories ; who employed 
their unflinching bravery in waging a wicked war against 
their king and fellow-citizens, and converted the soil of their 
inestimably dear country into the theatre of a bloody war, 
— a war waged not for the Hungarian people, but only 
through their instrumentaKty, to accomplish by fire and sword 
the destruction of states, and those social institutions in 



294 GENESIS OF THE 

Europe of which they are the supports. Whoever doubts 
the truth of this assertion may receive its confirmation in 
that Manifesto, which the Hungarian government addressed 
to the civilized nations of Europe through their represen- 
tative in the French Republic, Count Ladislaus Teleki, to 
which we have already alluded. This Manifesto sets out 
with declaring "that the war between Austria and Hun- 
gary was not a contest relating to mere local interests, but 
was an European affair; that it was not merely a hostile 
struggle between two governments, but that the most sacred 
interests were engaged in a conflict against treason, free- 
dom against despotism, and order and civilization against 
anarchy and barbarism ; and finally, that society was to be 
seen defending itself against everything that threatened 
its destruction." The object of the Magyar war, which was 
not merely of a national, but of an European character, could 
not have been described more justly or more correctly than 
in the words of the above Manifesto. We concur in it 
entirely, but must remark, that in taking a survey of the 
scene of war, our vision beholds the champions arrayed 
in different colours from those in which they appear to the 
author of the Manifesto, and portrays the combatants for 
destruction in the hues of the three-coloured rose, distin- 
guishing the defenders of social interests by the insignia of 
the two-coloured rose. In what light our readers may view 
these colours must depend altogether on the peculiar character 
of their own vision. 



BEVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 295 



* CHAPTEE VII. 

CONCLUSION. 

What the meaning is, in brief, of this long treatise, is a 
question which the reader of the Genesis will ask himself, 
provided his patience has enabled him to overcome the dry- 
ness of many of the events which have been therein detailed, 
as well as the length at which they have been described, and 
to reach the conclusion. 

A reply to the question will be found in the following 
observations : — 

The revolution in Austria broke out on March 13th, 1848, 
in spite of, and not, as many persons assert, by reason 
of, the perseverance of the government in adhering to its 
system.* 

* This sentence has met with the most violent attacks. We foresaw it. 
If an elderly lady, who for a long number of years strictly followed the 
rules to procure a long life, based on the principles of Hippocrates, were 
suddenly to sink into a state of lethargy, the disciples of old Hippo- 
crates would wonder how this disaster could happen in spite of the ob- 
servance of their master's rules. The disciples of the modern schools, of 
a Brown, of a Hahnemann, &c, would, on the contrary, pretend that it 
happened by reason of a strict adherence to that antiquated system. 
The first believe that strong doses of medicinal spirit, the latter that 
nothing but drops of spirit in a hundred- thousandth-fold state of dilu- 
tion, would have preserved the strength and health of the matron. 
Which of the two contending parties will succeed in inducing the other 
to acknowledge the justice of its opinion ? We doubt whether either 
will do so. The matter in dispute will always remain an open question. 
We shall therefore, also in our case, leave it undecided, and merely ask, 
if Austria's pitiful state, in 1848, happened only by reason of its system 
of government, how is it to be explained that other countries, governed 
on totally different principles, were plunged into a similar state ? 



296 GENESIS OF THE 

The seeds of the Revolution were chiefly sown in the years 
1813 and 1814, when the princes evoked the spirit of liberty 
amongst their people, in order to contend against the despot- 
ism of Napoleon. The recollections of the French revolution 
of the previous century, together with the philosophical doc- 
trines which preceded and followed that event, had prepared 
the soil for the reception of this seed. Disagreement amongst 
the princes ; the craving of some for popularity ; the 
neglect of popular interests by others,* and the errors of all 
parties, encouraged the development of the growing bud ; the 
French kingdom of the barricades of 1830 matured the flower, 
and the restoration of the republic in February, 1848, ripened 
the fruit. 

Constitutions were no protection against the revolutionary 
tendencies of the year 1848* 

The Austrian system of government, as it subsisted pre- 
vious to March, was the result of the conviction of the 
Emperor Francis that it was impossible by any other system 
to hold together the different parts of his kingdom, as they 
were then circumstanced, and which could not be altered 
without a revolution ; and thus that system was no inven- 
tion of Metternich's, although he, in common with every 
other director of the chief executive power in the state, 
steadily adhered to it. 

The degradation and slavery of the people, the oppression 
or supremacy of individual races or classes, was no part of 

* The review of " Genesis," in the " Historische Politische Blatter," 
denies the existence of that neglect as regards Germany. We did not 
mean to maintain its existence generally and absolutely, we merely 
wished to indicate that several governments in and out of Germany, 
were, in comparison with others, backward in their care for various sub- 
jects of moral and material interest to the people ; viz., education, the 
promotion of industry and commerce, &c. ; and that they consequently, 
comparatively speaking, incurred the reproach of neglect. 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 297 

this system, and was neither desired by the imperial family, 
nor by the Austrian statesmen. 

In carrying out this system, some contradictions occurred 
in the establishment of certain maxims, whereby the power 
of offering resistance to the hostile spirit of the age was 
weakened. 

The rulers of Austria and their counsellors strove sin- 
cerely to establish and promote the welfare of the people, 
but not in the manner demanded by the organs of the spirit 
of the age. 

A great deal, but not everything, that was established 
previous to March, might and should have been other and 
better in Austria than it actually was. 

The principal fault lay in not governing ; the administra- 
tion fancied they governed, while they merely administered 
the state after a petty household system. 

The chief sins of the Austrian government were sins of 
omission. 

Their sources were — want of decision, the result chiefly 
of too earnest an anxiety to attain the best advantage 
that was possible, in place of striving after acknowledged 
good ; a reluctance to increase the people's burdens ; a com- 
pliance with the opposition of those who would be compelled 
to abandon comfortable situations in consequence of improve- 
ments demanded by the times and by the unwieldy nature 
of the state machine. 

It was not in the power of any single director of the 
government, previous to March, to stop these sources of 
mischief. The revolution dried them up ; and therefore the 
evils, of which they were the cause, may for the future be 
more easily avoided by those who exercise the authority of 
government, than they could have been by their predecessors. 



298 GENESIS OF THE 

The revolution in Austria was not occasioned by the 
national fanaticism of the people, but the latter feeling was 
awakened by the revolution, which sought to use it as a lever 
to rouse the apathetic masses of the population for the 
attainment of its own objects. 

The revolution was prepared by the Estates and by the 
moneyed aristocracy in a lion's league with the so-termed 
intelligent classes, for the furthering of their own individual 
interests ; and the outbreak was occasioned by the misguided 
masses of the people. # 

The government was taken by surprise by this outbreak ; 
in depending too much on the attachment of the people, it 
entertained too slight an apprehension of their falling victims 
to seduction, and thus became heedless of the danger. 

The revolution was called into existence before March 1 3th, 
1848. That day merely removed the veil which had pre- 
viously concealed it. 

That veil had been previously seen through by the govern- 
ment, though they afterwards culpably omitted to make 
timely preparations of defence. 

* The term "Lion's League" (Lowenbtindniss) has given offence; 
yet the result of that alliance, as now before our eyes, proves the ex- 
pression to be correct. One of the allies — the aristocracy of the Estates — 
was hurled down to the Manes of Erebus, The second — the moneyed 
aristocracy — has lost its influence in the same proportion as it, since 
1848, has lost its millions. The third ally — intelligence — enjoys the 
fruits of the victory. In the field of knowledge, the learned make use 
of the press, without fearing the scissors of the censor. The church, 
both of the new and the old covenant, and in the first, the Catholic, not 
less than the acatholic, teaches, commands, and forbids in its sphere, 
without being any longer subjected to the interference of the State. 
Individual freedom has, since 1848, been expanded only in the field of 
intelligence. Our inquiring eye has discovered no augmentation of 
material interests. The free Austrian citizen after March, as regards 
residence, trade, and industry, and the enjoyment of pleasure, &c, ap- 
pears not to be in possession of any greater liberty, than that in which 
the Austrian subject before March already rejoiced. Can it thus be any 
longer doubtful to which of the allies, at the division of the prey, the 
lion's part devolved ? 



KEV0LUTI0N IN AUSTRIA. 299 

The so-termed acquisitions of March were not the result 
of a contest, but of a mere piece of jugglery. 

The interruption of the contest in the three days of March 
was required by circumstances. This interruption was after- 
wards imputed as a fault to the directors of the govern- 
ment, even by those who were previously hostile to the 
government, as soon as they perceived the value of what 
they had lost, and painfully missed what they no longer 
possessed.* 

* The correctness of this sentence has been doubted even by that party 
which now boasts and rejoices within the abandoned camp of the defeated 
party. This circumstance furnishes a proof how little, on the occasion 
of popular disturbances, mild proceedings are rewarded by gratitude. 
As long as the movements of the 13th of March bore merely the 
character of street riots, the authorities would have undoubtedly found 
no difficulty in suppressing them, most probably without the shedding 
of blood. That opportunity was allowed to pass away. Those who, on 
the morning of the eventful day had been exposed to violence, desired 
no protection, but rather increased the moral power of the popular 
agitation, as they publicly acknowledged the justice of the demands of 
the people by charging themselves with the office of mediators between 
the people and the government. The feelings which burst forth at 
Vienna had also found expression in other parts of the empire. Pres- 
burg, at a no great distance, and Prague, somewhat more remote, had 
shown themselves quite as adverse to the government as Vienna itself. 
No armed rebels, indeed, but only importunate beggars, appeared before 
the emperor on the 13th of March. The brigand, who, in a menacing 
attitude, with a pistol in his hand, enters your chamber, is met without 
hesitation, or any fear of censure, by a pistol-shot ; — not so the beggar, 
who, with humble mien and uncovered head, passes your threshold, and 
who subsequently, with effrontery, yet without threats, asks for a gift. 
If it should be afterwards discovered that banditti, who were concealed 
outside, entered by stealth the door which had been opened to the sup- 
plicant, in order to commit a robbery, the fate of the person robbed will 
be pitied, but he will not be suspected of weakness or cowardice for 
not having shot the humble beggar, with his hat in his hand, and 
thereby frightened the banditti from attacking his house. We saw, on 
the 13th of March, 1848, the Estates of Lower Austria, in the imperial 
castle, in no other character than that of supplicants and mediators. 
Their intentions appeared peaceable, their attachment to the imperial 
house unshaken. Amongst those who had followed them, and were 
waiting without, no banditti had as yet been discovered. Was it, 
therefore, in a moral point of view, possible for the government to resort 
to force of arms before it had evident proofs of the presence, not only of 



300 GENESIS OF THE 

The revolution, by means of the imperial decree of 
March 15th, 1848, might have been converted into a re- 
formation, if the resolutions of that decree had been fulfilled 
with effect, prudence, and determination. 

The free grant of a constitution, on April 25th, was an 
inconsiderate departure from that decree, and a political 
mistake. 

The recognition of the popular principle first occurred on 
April 8th, by the overthrow of the constitution of the Estates 
of Bohemia. 

The power of the democrats was increased through the 
arbitrary control exercised over the government by the Yienna 
Association, which usurped the privileges that belonged only 
to the Austrian representatives of the people. 

It was not the will of the Austrian people, but the will 
of those usurpers, which overturned the chartered constitu- 
tion, and occasioned the introduction of a constituent Diet ; 

supplicants, but also of banditti ruffians ? Might it, in utter defiance 
of public opinion at home and abroad, have answered the supplications 
for reform only with the thunder of cannons ? Was it not its duty to 
acquaint the people, before it smote them to the ground, of what the 
imperial decree of the 12th of March, 1848, had already, antecedently 
to the agitation at Yienna of the 13th of March, granted to the pro- 
vincial Estates, and of which the people was yet ignorant ? Was it not 
natural to suppose, looking to the high opinion which the government 
entertained of the loyalty and the attachment of the Viennese, that the 
riotous petition of the 13th of March would not have been attempted, 
if the Viennese had been informed of the emperor's decree, — viz. to 
take into consideration as quickly as possible, with deputies from the 
Provincial Estates, and, if necessary, even with the aggregate body of 
the Estates, those measures which the existing state of things dictated ? 
Is it, therefore, in accordance with justice to load the government with 
reproaches and invectives for having done by its manifesto, on the 
evening of the 1 3th of March, what it had omitted to do in the morning 
of that day (namely, to inform the people of the resolution taken by the 
emperor), and for not having employed, without such a preliminary 
manifesto, the armed force against the defenceless ? 

On calm reflection, the correctness of the above sentence will be 
acknowledged by every one who is able to comprehend the state of 
affairs of that time, and in whose heart the feelings of humanity dwell. 



DEVOLUTION IX AUSTRIA. 301 

drove the emperor from Yienna; insisted violently on the 
recognition of the supreme authority of the city of Yienna, 
and the consequent withdrawal of the sovereign from the 
seat of the central government and of the Diet ; which com- 
pelled the setting up of an absolute imperial viceroy for that 
portion of the kingdom which formed no part of Hungary, 
after another had been set up for that latter kingdom at 
Buda-Pesth; which extorted from the Diet, at the moment 
of its opening, the appointment of a new administration, 
and, before the completion of its duties as a constituent 
Diet, claimed for it the exercise of the executive power. 

The lamentable mistakes of the Diet are to be attri- 
buted to this misdirection of its destination (viz. a revision 
of the constitution of April 25th), as well as to the moral 
and intellectual incapacity of the majority of its members, 
which, again, were not the results of the election laws alone, 
but of the apathy with which the more peaceable and intel- 
ligent portion of the electors were seized at the hour of 
election. The political reformation which was pursued in 
Hungary in a legal manner, with the royal approbation 
obtained on April 11th, 1848, bore within itself the seeds of 
the bloody revolution which broke out six months later : 
because the king, relying on the loyal dispositions of the 
Magyar representatives, had altered the situation of Hun- 
gary with respect to the adjacent territories, and to the 
other parts of the empire, subject to an impracticable con- 
dition, and saw his sincere desires to influence the Magyars 
in the adoption of a peaceable equalization of conditions, 
frustrated by the exertions of their leaders to further their 
own schemes of separation. The political suicide of Tran- 
sylvania was not the choice of the majority of the popula- 
tion, but the effect of terror. 

The civil war between Hungary and Transylvania broke 



302 GENESIS OF THE 

out between the Magyars and the other races who inhabited 
those countries; namely, the Croatians, Slavonians, and Ser- 
vians in the former, and the Saxons and Romanians in the 
latter country, against the will of the king; and its object was 
the protection of their nationality, which was threatened by 
the Magyars. 

The Apostolic King and Emperor of Austria first took 
part in this war when the Magyars threw down the gaunt- 
let to him. To take up this gauntlet was the king's right, 
and the emperor's duty, — and his strict duty, because the 
separate establishment of the kingdom of Hungary, with its 
reformed constitution, could not but lead to the dissolution 
of the empire, which had now become constitutional. 

The war in Hungary and Transylvania was not merely a 
struggle for dynastic or national interests, but a combat 
between order and anarchy, civilization and barbarism, the 
preservation of society and general destruction. 

The continuation of the Austrian empire in its integrity is 
due to that powerful body which alone remained firm, viz. 
the army ; particularly to the army of the Italian general, 
who, preserving his courage, self-dependence, and discretion, 
even in misfortune, saved that part of the empire ; and also 
to the general in Bohemia, before whose sword the insurrec- 
tion in Prague and Vienna gave way ; and to the Ban of 
Croatia, who first established a firm rampart against the 
roaring tide of Magyar tyranny. 

These are the views which should render this work ac- 
ceptable to our contemporaries who are interested in the dis- 
semination of truth. We have no intention of becoming 
either the accusers or defenders of the Austrian government 
and its rulers, either before or after the days of March. But 
as the painter must represent in his picture both the regular 
and irregulai features of the countenance which his pencil 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 303 

delineates upon the canvass, truly, as they appear to his eyes, 
even so must the features of those transactions be repre- 
sented in this work, as they were witnessed by the author. 
The eyes of all men do not perceive objects in the same 
manner, and one man may therefore consider a portrait to 
be an extraordinary resemblance, whilst another discovers in 
it no likeness at all to the original. So will it be with this 
work. Only let no one do it the injustice of considering 
it a caricature, painted in a reactionary spirit, in order to 
forward such views. Reaction, unless the expression means 
an effort to re-establish the dominion of authority, of justice, 
and of law, which are disturbed by every revolution — in 
which sense every upright citizen is reactionary — is an 
impossibility. As steam which has once escaped from the 
cylinder can never again be compressed into it, so a people 
can never again be reduced to the condition from which a 
revolution, once fully accomplished, has delivered them. 
The people of Austria must therefore continue in possession 
of the constitutional privileges which were granted to them 
in the year 1848. But this possession must be secured to 
them by institutions sufficient to protect them against the 
schemes of despotism, not only from above, but also from the 
sides and from below ; for far less insupportable to a people 
is a despot with a crown, than despots with a kalpack, with 
a Swornost cap, with a Swabian hat, or even with the red 
Phrygian bonnet. The entire and very peculiar conglo- 
meration of races, of which the empire of Austria is composed, 
requires for such protection the enjoyment of peculiar con- 
stitutional institutions. 

The unity of the kingdom must be maintained. It exists 
in substance as long as the union of the different countries 
exists, over which the house of Hapsburg rules. It was 
described as an already established fact by the words of the- 



304 



GENESIS OF THE 



Pragmatic Sanction, " indivisibiliter et inseparabiliter" in no 
ambiguous manner, according to the statesmanlike notions 
of those days — it has been practically acknowledged by all 
Europe — only the word was not expressed, which was 
suitable to the circumstances. But even the word itself 
was afterwards used in the proclamation, that the Austrian 
aggregate of territories should be styled an empire, which 
took place when the Emperor Francis laid aside the crown of 
the German empire. The proper national meaning of the 
term, according to the plan of the chancellor of state, 
Prince Metternich, should have been symbolically explained 
to the eyes of all the people of Austria and Europe on the 
succession of the Emperor Ferdinand to the throne, by the 
religious ceremony of an imperial coronation. But this 
statesmanlike plan, like many others, was not carried out. 

But the preservation of the unity of the empire by no 
means depends upon the uniformity of the internal adminis- 
tration of its parts, a plan sought to be introduced by the 
Emperor Joseph II., by confounding the two opposite ideas 
of government and administration. The revolution of the 
year 1848 has, it is true, annihilated the parchment privi- 
leges of the Estates in all quarters of the empire, but not 
the character, the habits, and the wants of its different 
races. By the conditions of the 4th and oth sections of 
the Chartered Constitution of March 4th, 1849, the inde- 
pendence of all the crown lands within the limits ap- 
pointed by the constitution was guaranteed, and to each 
separate race an equality of privileges was secured, united 
with the maintenance and support of their own nationality 
and language. A revocation of these concessions and assur- 
ances, particularly in relation to those portions of the em- 
pire which require to be reconquered, can in a juridical 
point of view be justified, from the very claim connected 



REVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 305 

with the right of conquest; but such a course appears poli- 
tically and morally impossible, because in that event the 
government can only depend for support on the bayonet, 
whose power, as the present time teaches us, may produce, 
it is true, for the moment a decisive effect, but can never 
anywhere establish, and least of all in a constitutional state, 
the obedience of the governed in a lasting manner. 
At present, then, the great task to accomplish is, — 
" The security of the unity of the kingdom ; the security 
of the constitutional rights of each crown land and of each 
citizen, and also of the crown itself; and the security of 
each race, in the spirit of the Chartered Constitution, against 
every attack, whether it come from above, from below, or 
from the side." 

From the errors of the government and of the governed, 
which this work does not pretend to have discovered (for they 
were already known), but merely to have brought to recol- 
lection, let both parties understand what they should re- 
frain from doing. What they should do can be explained 
in a few words. The government should, by their course of 
conduct, establish a conviction in the minds of their sub- 
jects, that the interests of both are identical; they should 
frame institutions to check the centrifugal motion of the 
separate divisions which constitute the united country of 
Austria, but which at the same time should allow to each 
separate part its own individual natural form and motion, 
without interrupting the steady and regular pursuit of the 
common course, determining openly and firmly to oppose such 
interruption, let it come from what quarter it may. The 
governed, also, should learn that any disturbance in the 
motion of the whole, or even in any of its parts, will bring 
destruction on themselves, and they should therefore neither 
interrupt the common course nor dispute the form and 

X 



306 GENESIS OF THE 

motion of the neighbouring divisions ; they should reverence 
right, and its expression — the law — as the only bulwark of 
freedom, and should honourably support the government in 
word and deed in the assertion of its supremacy. By such- 
means will the Austrian constitutional empire, which has 
passed uninjured through the storms of revolution, quickly 
attain that high point of internal improvement and happi- 
ness which is suitable to its nature, and assume and esta- 
blish her right to that position in the state system of 
Europe to which she is entitled by her geographical posi- 
tion, the extent of her territory, the noble character of her 
people, and the eminent qualities of her young ruler. If 
the government and the governed, with calm zeal and 
mutual confidence, contribute their exertions to this great 
and noble object, its attainment must be the successful 
result of their united endeavours.* 

* A year has elapsed since we wrote those words. The government 
has, in that interval, with gigantic efforts, pushed forward the construc- 
tion of the State-fabric. What have the government done ? Some have 
been indifferent spectators ; others have blamed the architectural im- 
perfections of the fabric, the inevitable consequence of the haste with 
which it had to be constructed ; others, again, have secretly grudged 
seeing many of their own illusions dispelled. Such discoveries must 
doubtless have been painful. We have, in this third edition of 
Genesis, referred to some things which stand in total contrast to those 
illusions which in 1848 excited the masses to join in the political agitation. 
Yet the government is not to be censured for the palpable consequences 
of former fanaticism. Political enthusiasm must share the fate of any 
other enthusiasm. It is likewise beguiled by ' ' the sweet belief in beings 
to which its dreams gave birth ;" with regard to it also, "What once 
was beauteous and divine, is now the prey of rude reality." No govern- 
ment can secure what political enthusiasts two years since hoped to 
acquire. Should divine wrath ever in any country allow the Red 
Itepublic to rise upon the ruins of another form of government, its illu- 
sions will appear in a frightful form — dripping with blood. As far as we 
can perceive, the predecessors of those who succeeded to power in 
Austria after March, have very little reason for envying the latter, as 
they are not regarded by the people with more favour than themselves. 
The judgment passed on either does not seem to be very just. The pre- 
sent ministry has to solve the most difficult problem of reconstructing in 



KEVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA. 307 

baste the destroyed fabric of the State, and of reconciling contradictions 
which, in order to satisfy the claims of the moment, could not be pre- 
vented from being admitted into the plan of the building. According 
to that plan, the unitary constitutional empire is to be formed of twenty 
separate crown lands, and of ten different races, with due regard for the 
independence of those crown lands, and the equal rights of those races, 
as to the preservation and cultivation of their nationality and language. 
History, as far as we know, has no other instance of such a problem. 
The boundaries between the securities for the unity of the States on 
the one hand, and for the independence of each crown land on the 
other, as also for the equal rights of every race, cannot possibly be 
drawn distinctly ; for in every organic structure — and the State is 
such a structure — everything which operates upon an individual part, 
operates also more or less on the whole. To secure the well-being 
of the whole, is the first duty of the government. At present, it 
acts up to its duty, under the pressure of the desire for separation 
entertained by some of the constituent parts of the empire, — which 
desire, suppressed for a short time by the sentiment of unity and 
the bravery of the victorious army, cannot yet be considered extinct. 
Is the government to be censured for not gratifying all the wishes 
of each crown land and race. We would venture to advise the latter, 
if we may be permitted to do so, to confine those wishes, — especially at 
the present moment of a new organization, within the limits of the 
greatest possible moderation, in order to prevent, on the occasion of 
constructing the constitutional empire, a repetition of what is said to 
have happened at the building of the Tower of Babel. The Diets of the 
crown lands and the general Imperial Diet will, without fail, either 
destroy the unity of the empire or the constitution itself, nay, perhaps 
both, if they should allow themselves to be induced, with fanatical zeal, 
or in an inflexible spirit of theory, and without a due regard to the 
existing state of affairs, to attempt, in their literal and complete sense, 
the realization of those concessions which, by the 4th and 5th para- 
graphs of the imperial constitution of the 4th of March, 1849, have been 
made to the various provinces of the empire. The honest intentions 
and zealous efforts of the emperor and his ministers to preserve both 
the unity and the constitution of the empire, are beyond question. Whe- 
ther those efforts will be crowned with success, depends on the future 
representatives of the people. Would that these hints could receive 
calm consideration at the soon approaching elections for the provincial 
Diets, as well as at those of a later date for the general Imperial Diet, 
at the hands of the electors, and subsequently also of the elected. The 
future fate of the Austrian constitutional empire is in their hands. 



x2 



APPENDIX TO GENESIS. 



OFFICIAL PAPERS.— I. 

" Most High Decree. 

" We, Ferdinand the First, by the grace of God Emperor 
of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia, the fifth of the 
name ; King of Lombardy and Venice, of Dalmatia, Croatia, 
Slavonia, Galicia, Lodomeria, and Illyria; Archduke of Aus- 
tria ; Duke of Lorraine, Salzburg, Styria, Carniola, Carinthia, 
Upper and Lower Silesia ; Grand Duke of Transylvania, 
Margrave of Moravia, Princely Count of Habsburg and 
Tyrol, &c. <fec., have now adopted such measures as we 
have deemed necessary to satisfy the wishes of our loyal 
people. 

" The freedom of the press is, by our declaration of the 
abolition of the censorship, established in the same manner 
as in all other states where it exists. 

" A National Guard, constituted on the basis of property 
and intelligence, already discharges its salutary duties. 

" The necessary steps have been taken for a convocation of 
the representatives of all the Provincial Estates, and of the 
Central Congregations of the Loinbardo- Venetian kingdom, 
in the shortest possible time, in order, with an increased 
representation of the citizens, and paying regard to the exist- 



310 APPENDIX TO GENESIS. 

ing provincial constitutions, to co-operate in the constitution 
of the country which has been determined on by us. 

" Accordingly, we expect with confidence that men's minds 
be tranquillized, that the studies (of the universities) will 
resume their regular course, that trade and peaceful commerce 
will again revive. 

" We entertain this hope the more, because, having been 
amongst you to-day, we have convinced ourselves, with feel- 
ings of emotion, that the loyalty and attachment which for 
centuries you have uninterruptedly paid to our ancestors, 
and also to ourselves upon every occasion, inspires you now 
as heretofore. 

" Given in our imperial residence and capital city of 
Vienna, March 15th, 1840, and the fourteenth year of our 
reign. 

"Ferdinand. (L.S.) 
" Charles Count Von Inzaghi, 

High Chancellor. 
" Francis Baron Von Pillersdorf, 

Aulic Chancellor. 
" Joseph Baron Von Weingarten, 
Aulic Chancellor. 

"•In obedience to his Imperial and Boyal Apostolic 
Majesty's high express commands : 

"Peter Bitter Von Satzgeber, 
Imperial and Boyal Privy 
Councillor." 



OFFICIAL PAPERS. 311 

II. 

"Ministerial Proclamation of May 26th and 27 th, 1848. 

H The Ministerial Council, in order to meet the urgent 
wishes of the people for the prevention of greater dangers, 
and at the request of the Academic Legion, has resolved 
not to insist on the execution of the order to dissolve the 
Legion, and to unite the same with the National Guard, 
and expects that the Academic Legion will, of its own 
accord, propose sureties to render the safety and the return 
of the emperor possible. 

* PlLLERSDORF, SOMMARUGA, KrAUS, LaTOUR, 

Baumgartner." 
" Vienna, May 26th, 1848." 



"The assurances of the emperor, of May 15th and 16th of 
this year, continue in their full extension. 

" The Academic Legion continues unaltered. 

u The military will immediately retire to their barracks, 
and the posts at the gates will be maintained jointly by the 
National Guards, the Academic Legion, and the military, in 
equal force. 

" PlLLERSDORF, SOMMARUGA, KRAUS, LaTOUR, 

Baumgartner." 
" Vienna, May 26th, 1848." 



" The military hereby receives orders immediately to 
retire. Employment will immediately be provided for the 
workmen ; wherefore, for the restoration of tranquillity, they 
must withdraw to their pursuits. 

" PlLLERSDORF, BAUMGARTNER, KrAUS." 

" Vienna, May 26th, 1848." 



312 APPENDIX TO GENESIS. 

" The undersigned declare that the troops of the garrison 
have already, pursuant to the orders of their commander, 
retired to their barracks, and can only be called out at the 
request of the National Guard, for their support. 

" PlLLERSDORF, L/ATOUR." 

" Vienna, May 26th, 1848." 



" The Ministerial Council is sensible of the extraordinary 
circumstances which have made it a matter of necessity that 
a committee of citizens, national guards, and students should 
be formed to watch over the order and safety of the city, 
and the rights of the people, and publishes the resolutions 
which that committee adopted on the 26th instant, in the 
following order : — 

" * (1.) The posts at the city gates shall be occupied by the 
National Guard, the Civic Guard, and the Academic Legion 
alone ; but the other posts, by the National and Civic 
Guard jointly with the military ; the posts in the buildings 
of the war department, being military posts, shall be occu- 
pied by the military alone. 

" c (2.) Only such a military force as is necessary for the 
service shall remain here ; all the rest shall, as quickly as 
possible, withdraw. 

u 6 (3.) Count Hoyos remains (subject to a lawful course of 
proceeding), as a pledge for what has been promised, and as 
surety for the privileges obtained on May 15th and 16th, 
under the superintendence of the Committee of Citizens. 

" < (4.) Those who are guilty of the transactions of May 26th 
shall be brought to public trial. 

" ' (5.) The ministry submits to his majesty the urgent 
request that his majesty will immediately return to Vienna ; 
or in case the health of his majesty shall prevent this course, 



OFFICIAL PAPERS. 313 

that he will appoint one of the imperial princes as his repre- 
sentative.' 

" The ministry must at the same time invite the newly- 
formed committee to make them acquainted with the nature 
of the securities they may offer his majesty for his personal 
safety, and for the safety of the imperial family. 

" The same ministry farther places the whole property of 
the state, as well as that of the imperial court, all public 
establishments, collections, institutions, and public corpora- 
tions, in the capital, under the protection of the people of 
Yienna, and of the newly-formed committee, and declares 
the same independent of all other authority. They must 
commit to the same the full charge of public peace and 
order, as well as the protection of person and property. 

" The same ministry must finally announce that they can 
only continue to discharge the business of the state, which 
has been temporarily confided to them, until the same is 
either withdrawn by his majesty, or the ministry shall be 
deprived of the means of adopting its measures with safety, 
and discharging them under their own responsibility. 
" In the name of the Ministerial Council, 

" PlLLERSDORF." 

" Vienna, May 21th, 1848." 



" With the consent of the Ministerial Council, it is de- 
clared that only the 12th rifle battalion and the infantry 
regiment Prince Emile, were intended to march hither, but 
that the proper orders have been since issued, that those 
two corps, especially the 2nd battalion of the abovenamed 
regiment, which was only intended to supply the place of 
the regiment Count Nugent, destined for Italy, shall not 
come hither. 

" Vienna, May 27th, 1848." " Pillersdorf." 



APPENDIX TO GENESIS. 



III. 

"Imperial Announcement. 

" Dear Baron Yon Pillersdorf, — I believe I owe it to my 
subjects to inform them, as speedily as possible, of the rea- 
sons which have determined me to leave my residence. The 
extraordinary and urgent nature of the circumstances do not 
permit me to confer with you thereupon in the first instance ; 
I have therefore deemed it right to issue the following mani- 
festo, and whilst I, at the same time, commission my go- 
vernor in Tyrol to publish it immediately in that province, 
and intrust the same commission in respect of my kingdom 
of Hungary to the Palatine there resident, I direct you to 
publish the same in the rest of my states. 

"Ferdinand, (m. pi) 

"Innsbruck, May 21st, 1848. 



" Manifesto to my People. 

" The proceedings in Vienna on May 15th impress me 
with the sad conviction that an anarchical faction, relying 
upon the Academical Legion, which has chiefly been led 
astray by strangers, and some sections of the citizens and 
National Guards, who have swerved from their accustomed 
loyalty, have wished to deprive me of all freedom of action, 
in order by such means to enslave the well-disposed inhabi- 
tants of my capital and the provinces, which are univer- 
sally irritated at such individual presumption. Nothing 
remained except the choice of extricating myself with the 
assistance of the royal garrison, by force, if necessary, or to 
withdraw for a time to the retirement of some one of those 



OFFICIAL PAPERS. 315 

provinces which, thanks be to God, have still continued 
loyal. 

" The choice could not be doubtful. I chose the peaceful 
and bloodless alternative, and betook myself to that moun- 
tain land which has at all times proved faithful, where I 
might readily receive news from that army which is fighting 
so bravely for its country. 

" The idea is far from my mind of wishing to withdraw, 
or to curtail, those gifts and their natural consequences, 
which I bestowed upon my people in the days of March. I 
shall, on the contrary, ever feel disposed to listen to the 
just complaints of my people, when made in a lawful man- 
ner, and to take into account the national and provincial 
interests; but these must be verified as being general, 
brought forward in a legal manner, considered by the Diet, 
and then submitted to me for approbation, and must not 
be extorted by the armed hands of a few unauthorized 
individuals. 

" I wished to say thus much for the general satisfaction of 
my people, who have been painfully excited by my departure 
from Yienna, and also to remind them that I have ever 
been ready, with paternal love, to receive my returning 
children, even though they should be considered lost. 

" Ferdinand," (m. p.) 

"Innsbruck, May 20th, 1848." 



The following cabinet letter to the Ministerial Council 
was at the same time prepared, which, as its contents show, 
imposed upon them the duty to adopt those measures which 
the situation of the monarchy and the safety of the throne 
required, to preserve the regular course of business undis- 
turbed. 



316 APPENDIX TO GENESIS. 

" Dear Baron Yon Pillersdorf, — The Field-marshal Lieu- 
tenant Count Hoyos has just presented the letter addressed 
to me by the Ministerial Council on the evening of the 17th 
instant. I reply thereto, that the city of Yienna has lately, 
to their great prejudice, so grossly violated the loyalty 
which they have always formerly evinced towards me and 
my ancestors, that I find myself compelled to leave them for 
a time, and not to return before I have become perfectly 
convinced of the renewal of their former disposition towards 
me. The Ministerial Council will, as I arranged previous 
to my departure, find it their duty, in the mean time, to 
adopt those measures which the situation of the monarchy 
and the safety of the throne require, in order that the 
regular course of business may not be interrupted by my 
temporary change of residence in my states. 

" Ferdinand," (m. p.) 
"Innsbruck, May 20th, 1848." 



" To the Loyal Inhabitants of my Capital. 

" The city of Yienna, in the first instance, and soon after- 
wards the representatives of my entire empire, gratefully 
acknowledged their conviction that it was to me, in the 
memorable days of March, a duty of sacred earnestness, and 
the most satisfactory deed of my life, both to my heart and 
to the boundless love I bear my people, to meet their 
wishes by a constitution adapted to the wants of the time, 
and free in the widest meaning of the word. The happi- 
ness of my people is also my happiness ; and influenced by 
this feeling alone, on the proposal of my council, I granted 
the constitution which was announced on April 25th. 

" I have not wished to anticipate by this measure the 



OFFICIAL PAPERS. 317 

demands of the age, the wants of the separate provinces, or 
the more influential opinion of my people, which, when 
announced in a legal manner, will ever confirm me in my 
determinations. 

" But my conviction that the charter of the constitution, 
accorded by me, would satisfy general expectations, has been 
destroyed by the solicitude displayed in the various pro- 
vinces for the correct apprehension and appreciation of their 
not unimportant separate interests, as well as by the events 
that happened in Vienna on the loth of May. 

" On this account, on the 16th of May, I raised no ob- 
jection against declaring the next Diet to be a constituent 
Diet, and establishing a right of voting in accordance 
therewith. The manner in which I was induced to this 
course has deeply hurt me. The public voice of all Europe 
has unanimously pronounced its censure thereon in the 
highest degree. But I am ready firmly to maintain the 
transaction itself, because it affords a pledge that the con- 
stitution which is to impart moral and material strength 
to my kingdom will be the effect of public opinion openly 
expressed, both in its principles and its details, with which I 
am determined to go hand in hand. 

" My most anxious wish, and I am convinced that I shall 
not express it in vain, is, that it may be possible to open the 
Diet speedily in Vienna, the seat of my government. 

" In order, therefore, that the Diet should be opened there, 
and not quickly in some other place, it is indispensable that 
within the walls of Vienna undisturbed and firmly-established 
peace and order should reign, and that to the deputies from 
the provinces perfect safety shall be extended and secured 
for the freedom of their deliberations. 

" I may therefore expect from the inhabitants of Vienna 
that they will do everything to re-establish lawful order in 



318 APPENDIX TO GENESIS. 

every respect. I expect that all personal animosities will 
cease, and that amongst the inhabitants of Vienna the spirit 
of conciliation and peace will alone reign. 

" With paternal affection I make these proposals to the 
united population of Vienna, and I calculate on their fulfil- 
ment, since I shall prize the day when, with the opening of 
the parliament, I can celebrate my joyful meeting the 
citizens of Vienna, who have ever been dear to my heart. 
" Ferdinand, (m. p.) 
* Wessenberg, (m. p.) ; Doblhoff," (m. p.) 

" Innsbruck, June 3rd, 1848." 



IV. 

" Ministerial Proclamation. 

" Through the Constitutional Gazette of Prague, of May 
31st, the ministry has learnt that a provisional government 
has been established in Prague. 

" As soon as this news was confirmed by an official notifi- 
cation, the ministry found themselves compelled to represent 
to his majesty the emperor the illegality of such a proceed- 
ing, in. order to prevent the approach of a deputation to 
procure a recognition of this measure. 

" At the same time, the Minister of the Interior declared^ 
in an order to the Provincial Chief of Bohemia, the whole 
proceeding to be illegal and void, and called upon him, on his 
responsibility, to give no encouragement to such a course. 
At the same time, the following notice was issued to the pro- 
vincial chiefs : — 

" * According to intelligence which has arrived to-day, a 



OFFICIAL PAPERS. 319 

provisional government has been established in Prague, 
under the supposition that communication with the respon- 
sible government has been interrupted by late events, whilst 
the posture of affairs renders speedy measures necessary, 
which far exceed the power of the existing authorities ; and 
accordingly two members of the responsible Ministerial 
Council have been forthwith despatched to Innsbruck, in 
order to procure the imperial consent to this measure. 

" 'I find myself compelled to announce to your excellency 
that in a despatch transmitted to the governing presidents 
in Bohemia I have pronounced such a course to be wholly 
illegal, uncalled for by any cause, dangerous in its conse- 
quences, and directly opposed to the views of his majesty, 
and therefore completely null and void. I therefore call 
on all governing presidents to pay no regard to such an 
illegal course till the decision of his majesty has been 
obtained, and to pay strict attention to the orders of the 
ministry, as I hold them responsible for the consequences 
and injury that have ensued, or may ensue, from such 
unlawful proceedings ; and this responsibility I extend to 
all those who may have taken part in their determination. 
Finally, I require the governing presidents, in case they shall 
consider themselves personally bound by the revolution that 
has been adopted, to surrender their presidency over the 
provincial authorities and the government of the country 
to the existing vice-presidents. I must add to this commu- 
nication the impressive demand, that in case of similar at- 
tempts to pursue such unlawful courses, you will frustrate 
every attempt of the kind, and upon your serious respon- 
sibility will avoid every course which in this important 
moment may weaken the integrity of the empire, and pre- 
vent the development of those resources which the honour, 
the welfare, and the maintenance of the monarchy indis- 
pensably require in their fullest extension.' " 



320 APPENDIX TO GENESIS. 



" Proclamation. 

" In my manifesto of June 3rd, I expressed the intention 
of opening, in person, the Diet to be held in "Vienna. I 
at that time cherished the hope that no obstacle would be 
offered to my intention, if even the time originally appointed 
could be adhered to. 

" It is to me, however, a source of sorrow, that at this 
moment, when the convocation of the Constituent Diet 
can no longer be postponed, my impaired health does not 
allow me to undertake the journey to Vienna. 

" But in order that the opening of the Diet may not be 
prevented, nor the necessary preparations impeded ; and in 
order particularly that in this moment, so important for the 
welfare of the state, a strong union of all the organs of 
government may be effected, I have resolved, with the advice 
of my ministers, who are here present, to keep my dear 
brother near my person, in. my present place of abode, and to 
send my dear uncle, the Archduke John, as my representa- 
tive, to Vienna. During the time that must elapse before 
I can follow him to Vienna, I shall not only empower him 
to open the Diet, but also to discharge all the duties 
of government that require my decision; and I am con- 
vinced that, in intrusting him with my confidence, this con- 
fidence will find an echo in the hearts of my people, since, 
filled with the same dispositions, and governed by the same 
love and solicitude for my people, he will, doubtless, during 
the entire period of his office, act in my spirit. 

" Ferdinand, 
" Wessenberg, Doblhqff." 

" Innsbruck, June 16th, 1848." 



OFFICIAL PAPEES. 321 

VI. 

" Proclamation. 

" His majesty tlie emperor has, in consideration of his 
still-continuing indisposition, appointed me his representa- 
tive. 

" In this character I have to open the Diet in his 
name, and until his return to Vienna, to discharge the busi- 
ness of government which belongs to him as constitutional 
emperor. 

" This confidence of my emperor is sacred to me. I will 
justify it by fulfilling his warmest and most sincere wishes, 
which have for their object to preserve strictly and con- 
scientiously, to the Austrian people, the freedom and rights 
that have been secured to them, and to act in the spirit of 
justice and of mercy wherever the imperial word shall decide. 

" The times are serious and decisive for the happiness and 
the power of Austria. A new and firm foundation has to 
be laid ; legislation in all its branches needs important 
changes ; and new resources require to be opened, in order 
to meet the most pressing emergencies. This important 
task can only be performed by the united and powerful co- 
operation of all, and by a general and courageous bearing 
towards the enemies of our country. 

" With confidence I depend upon this general co-opera- 
tion ; I depend upon the love of the Austrian people for 
their emperor and for their beautiful country ; I depend upon 
their intelligent regard for order and peace, as conditions of 
real freedom ; and I depend, in fine, upon their confidence 
in my constant and honourable readiness to dedicate the 
utmost of my power to the cause of Austria's welfare and 
tranquillity. 



6AL APPENDIX TO GENESIS. 

u In their anticipations I feel myself strong, and filled 
with the best hopes that I shall be enabled to restore back 
into the hands of my gracious emperor the power which has 
been confided to me, strengthened by law, peace, and gene- 
ral prosperity. 

u The Archduke John." 



VII. 

" Gentlemen Representatives, — Commissioned by his 
majesty, our most gracious constitutional emperor, to open 
the Constituent Diet, I hereby discharge this gratifying- 
duty ; I welcome you with deep emotions, gentlemen, who 
are called to complete the great work of the regeneration of 
our country. 

" The security of the freedom we have obtained for our- 
selves and for our posterity demands your open, independent 
co-operation for the establishment of the constitution. 

" All the national divisions of the Austrian monarchy are 
equally dear to the heart of his majesty. The interests of 
all will find a firm foundation in their cordial brotherly 
feeling, in the perfect equality of all, and in their sincere 
attachment to Germany. 

"The heart of his majesty was filled with sorrow to ob- 
serve that the full abundance of all those blessings could 
not be at once attained, which the wise use of free institu- 
tions usually secures to a people. 

" His majesty sympathizes deeply with the grievances of 
his people. 



OFFICIAL PAPERS. 323 

" With relation to Hungary and its adjacent territories, 
those sentiments of justice which distinguish that noble- 
minded people allow us to expect a peaceful arrangement of 
those questions which are still unsettled. 

" The war in Italy is not carried on against the freedom. 
of the Italian people : it has for its earnest object, whilst it 
fully recognised national claims, to assert the honour of th$ 
Austrian arms over the Italian powers, and to protect the 
most important interests of the state. 

" Since our benevolent efforts peaceably to settle our un- 
happy discords have failed, it becomes the duty of our brave 
army to exact an honourable peace. 

* The friendly relations of Austria with all other powers 
remain unchanged. 

" Our friendly connections with Spain, for a long time 
interrupted, have been again restored. 

" From the effects of former financial operations, and from 
the concurrence of extraordinary circumstances, the financial 
affairs of the kingdom are brought to a condition which de- 
mands unusual measures, and the ministry will be required, 
at the first opportunity, to propose the requisite plans, and 
lay before us the accompanying estimates. 

" In the convocation of representatives, for an especial con- 
sideration of the public interests, will be found the best 
security for the moral and physical development of Austria. 

" Gentlemen, his majesty conveys to you and to the entire 
nation his imperial welcome, and offers you the assurance of 
his cordial attachment. 

" The Constituent Diet is opened." 



y2 



324 APPENDIX TO GENESIS. 



VIII. 

" Sovereign Assembly of our Realm ! — The joy of the 
people of Austria on the day of the opening of the Sovereign 
Assembly has found a most gratifying echo with the Com- 
mittee of the Citizens of Vienna, the National Guard, and 
the Academic Legion. 

" Impressed with the high importance of the task under- 
taken by the Constituent Diet, upon the performance 
of which the fate of the Austrian people depends, the 
select committee considers it a most sacred duty, by means 
of increased exertions, to take care that the high Assembly 
may be undisturbed in its sittings. The necessity of accom- 
plishing this mission, the committee, in conformity with the 
character of its institution, believes will be found in its known 
efficiency, and in the circumstances of the present time. 

" History describes it to be a child of the revolution of 
the ever-memorable 26th of May, the offspring of an agree- 
ment between the people and the ministry. At that time, 
as the ministerial announcement of May 27th expressly 
declared, entire responsibility for public order and peace, as 
well as the protection of person and property, w~as confided 
to it, and the whole property of the state, as well as that 
of the court, and all public institutions, collections, and cor- 
porations in the capital, was placed under its safeguard ; and 
it was declared to be an independent authority created for 
the preservation of order and the protection of the capital, 
as well as the guardianship of the rights of the people. 

" The opinion of all reflecting and just-thinking people ; 
the numerous addresses and solemn deputations sent to them 
from almost every province ; t\e increasing number of peti- 
tions which every day arrived ; but, above all, the restora- 



OFFICIAL PAPERS. 323 

tion and preservation of tranquillity, in spite of the ceaseless 
endeavours and intrigues of criminal agitators, afford testi- 
mony that this body has justified the confidence of the peo- 
ple, and ably discharged its duty up to the present day. 

" The burden of its serious responsibility has not yet been 
removed, and it continues to the present hour to be the only 
real popular authority. 

" In this capacity it considers itself, above all things, 
bound solemnly to express hereby to the high Assembly its 
sentiments of deep devotion, and in the following statement, 
to publish, for general information, its latest resolutions ; 
because therein those particular points are expressed, which, 
according to its judgment, point out the sphere of its 
duties : — 

" The committee has unanimously resolved to continue its 
sittings until the high Assembly shall announce its dissolu- 
tion ; or until the ministry shall either establish another 
popular authority, or shall so reorganize the existing one, 
that the preservation of order, peace, and security may with 
confidence be intrusted to it. 

" Until that time, however, in the first place, it will use all 
the means in its power for the preservation of order, peace, 
and security ; and in the second, it will co-operate with the 
ministry in their efforts, that the authorities, by a popular 
reconstruction which shall possess the confidence of the 
people, shall be strengthened and empowered to undertake 
the discharge of active duties, and render the dissolution of 
the committee possible. 

" In order finally to put an end to that arbitrary self- 
assistance, which endangers order and security in the highest 
degree, the committee believes, that in its character of de- 
fender of the rights of the people, it is also its duty to afford 
every individual whose rights are attacked that protection 



326 APPENDIX TO GENESIS. 

which each citizen, in the existing state of the law, is entitled 
to demand from the proper authorities ; that for such a 
purpose the committee will interfere by mediation, and, if 
necessary, by force. 

" The committee has in this statement given, in a general 
manner, a sketch of its future duties. 

" In the consciousness of honourably discharging their 
civic duties, which have been undertaken with the confidence 
of the people, and are inscribed upon their hearts as a com- 
mand resulting from the necessities of the capital, the com- 
mittee, for the attainment of its glorious object of embolden- 
ing the timid and the suppressing all evil-minded agitators, 
respectfully solicits the approbation of the high Assembly. 

a The Committee of Vienna Citizens, the Na- 
tional Guard, and the Academic Legion, for 
the preservation of order and safety, and 
the maintenance of the rights of the people. 
" Dr. Wurda, Secretary, Representative." 

" Vienna, July 25th, 1848." 



IX. 

a Answer to the Assembled Estates of the Diet of Transylvania. 

u The union of Transylvania with Hungary has filled our 
breasts with warm feelings of joy. Intelligence of happier 
and more important events could not reach us. 

" We were surprised, not so much by the unexpectedness 
of our joy, for we had expected with full confidence the 
union of the two sister nations ; but we were astonished by 



OFFICIAL PAPEKS. 327 

the excess of our proud conviction, that this country, united 
from henceforth, would no longer remain a prey to cabals or 
violence. 

" "We delayed no exertions to procure the sanction of the 
monarch to the articles of union. The Ministerial Presi- 
dent proceeded forthwith, accompanied by a deputation, to 
our crowned king, to request tu-gently the royal word and 
seal for the union ; and he did not return before, in commu- 
nicating the monarch's consent to the perfect incorporation 
of the kingdoms, he could announce that the imperishable 
foundation-pillars of our future greatness had been laid. 

" So long in bygone days as these two nations were united, 
we were surrounded by greatness, glory, and national renown; 
on the day which separated us from each other commenced 
our weakness, humiliation, and slavery. The might of the 
conqueror broke against our united endeavours ; separated, 
we were both slaves, and erased from the list of independent 
nations. 

" God, the common alliance of blood, and national recol- 
lections of the past, commanded us to be brothers, and not 
merely neighbours as we were previously. A neighbour trou- 
bles himself little about the lot of his neighbour. All of us, 
inhabitants of Transylvania and Hungary, are allied. We 
are brothers who love each other, desire our common wel- 
fare, and wish to live and are ready to die for each other's 
good. 

" The union is a new public announcement of this national 
brotherhood in the face of Europe ; that which blood unites 
and the joys and sorrows of a thousand years sanctifies, that 
we declare to-day publicly before the world to be eternal. 

" May this be the first most glorious fruit of our brotherly 
re-union after three hundred years' separation. 

" Even in separation we were united. The princely word 



328 APPENDIX TO GENESIS. 

of our crowned king has now sanctioned our practical union, 
Nothing more remains than that the blessing of God should 
crown this union, which is ready, on behalf of the people of 
every tongue and of every creed, to adopt, acknowledge, and 
practise the sacred principles of freedom, equality, and bro- 
therly love. 

" Count Louis Batthyani, Francis Deak, 
Gabriel Klausal, Louis Kossuth, 
B. John Eotvos, Bart. Szemere, Laz. 
Messaros, G. Stephen Szechenyi." 

"Buda-Pesth, Jane Uth, 1848." 



X. 

" Sjyeech from tlte Throne. 

" In the name and as the representative of the exalted 
person of our glorious reigning king, Ferdinand Y., I hereby 
open the present Diet. 

" The unusual circumstances of the country render it 
necessary, without waiting for the conclusion and completion 
of all those plans and propositions which the responsible 
ministry of his majesty had to prepare and bring to a con- 
clusion upon the proposal and at the command of the late 
Diet, to convoke the present Diet without delay. 

" In Croatia open rebellion exists ; in the provinces of the 
Lower Danube armed bodies of rioters have violated the 
peace of the country ; and as it is the most anxious wish of his 
majesty to avoid a civil war, his majesty is convinced that 
the assembled representatives of the nation will consider it 



OFFICIAL PAPERS. 329 

as the first and most important object of their solicitude to 
adopt every measure calculated to restore the interrupted 
peace, to maintain the integrity of the holy Hungarian 
crown, and to secure the inviolable sanctity of the laws. 

" The defence of the country and the state of the finances 
will therefore be the principal points to which, under the 
present extraordinary circumstances, I, acting in the name 
of his majesty, particularly direct the attention and solici- 
tude of the national representatives. 

" The responsible ministers of his majesty will announce 
measures adapted to these circumstances. His majesty con- 
fidently hopes that the representatives of the nation will 
introduce speedy and suitable propositions with relation to 
all those matters which, in preference to every other con- 
sideration, the safety and welfare of the country demand. 

" With feelings of pain, and the deepest displeasure, has 
his majesty learned, that although he, who has ever held 
the happiness of all his subjects, of every country, dear to 
his heart, and only obeyed the impulse of his own will, 
when, during the last Diet, upon the request of the loyal 
Hungarian nation, he sanctioned with his high royal appro- 
bation those laws which were requisite to further the im- 
provement of the country in accordance with the exigencies 
of the time; yet evil-minded inciters to sedition have been 
found, particularly in Croatia, and in the provinces of the 
Lower Danube, to excite the inhabitants of those countries 
against one another, who differ in language and religion, hy 
means of false reports and alarming tales, impelling them, by 
slanderously asserting that the above-mentioned laws were 
not the free expression of his majesty's will, violently to 
oppose the dominion of law and of regular authority; and 
some have carried their sedition to such an extent as to 
assert that their opposition is intended to promote the 



330 APPENDIX TO GENESIS. 

interests of the exalted royal house, and is exerted with the 
knowledge and approbation of his majesty. 

" To quiet the minds, therefore, of all the inhabitants of 
this country, of every language and religion, I hereby declare, 
by the special and most gracious command of our most 
illustrious lord and master, and in his most exalted name, 
and as the representative of his person, that his majesty is 
firmly and immovably determined to protect with his royal 
power the unity and integrity of the Hungarian throne 
against every attack from abroad and attempt at division at 
home, and firmly to maintain unchanged every law which 
has been at any time sanctioned by him. And as his 
majesty, on the one hand, will never allow the freedom of 
his citizens, which has been secured by the laws, to be 
violated, so, on the other, his majesty himself, and all the 
members of his royal house, condemn in the strongest 
manner the daring hardihood of those individuals who 
venture to assert that any unlawful action, be it of what- 
ever nature it may, or any disobedience to lawful authority, 
is compatible with the most high will of his majesty, or has 
happened for the advantage of his royal house. 

" The union of Transylvania and Hungary has been sanc- 
tioned by his majesty with the most cordial and paternal 
feelings, because his Majesty has thereby fulfilled the anxious 
wishes of his truly beloved Hungarian and Transylvanian 
people, and also because the territory of two countries now 
incorporated together, by the united development of their 
maturity and power, will thereby become a firmer support of 
the throne and of freedom. 

" His Majesty's Hungarian ministry will announce what- 
ever measures, in relation to the details of that union which 
has already been effected, remain to be considered by the 
legislative bodies. 



OFFICIAL PAPERS. 331 

" With relation to foreign affairs in the Lornbardo -Vene- 
tian kingdom, where the hostile troops of the King of Sar- 
dinia, and of some other Italian powers, have attacked the 
army of his majesty, the war has not yet been brought to a 
termination. With the other foreign powers our friendly 
relations still continue undisturbed, of whose continuance 
his majesty doubts the less, because his majesty has ever 
made it an object of the greatest solicitude with his govern- 
ment, to neglect nothing which, without injury to the dig- 
nity of his royal throne, the safety of his loyal subjects and 
then real interests, may establish a peaceful understanding 
with foreign powers ; and his majesty hopes, with justice, 
that as he has ever pursued the principle of neutrality with 
respect to the interior affairs of other powers, the same 
neutrality will be observed in an equal degree by foreign 
states. 

" His majesty entertains no doubt that the Diet, having 
in view the inseparably united interests of ' the royal 
throne and of constitutional freedom,' will, without delay, 
adopt every regulation which the welfare of the country so 
urgently demands. And I discharge the high duty imposed 
upon me by his majesty, when I assure the Diet and the 
whole loyal nation, of the gracious favour, and the heart- 
felt paternal dispositions, of our most illustrious lord and 
king-" 



RESULTS OF THE INVESTIGATION 



INSTITUTED BY THE 

IMPERIAL-ROYAL COURT-MARTIAL, 

RESPECTING THE 

:URDERERS OF THE MINISTER OF WAR, 

GENERAL FIELD-MAESHAL 

THEODOR COUNT BAILLET VON LATOUR. 



PREFACE. 



The object of the following pages is not merely to give a 
history of this event, so pregnant in its consequences, derived 
from official sources, together with a short sketch of the 
circumstances attending each individual charge, but also to 
make known the opinion of the public respecting the origi- 
nators and chief actors in this crime, their motives, and the 
means they employed. 

The number of witnesses produced, exceeding a thousand, 
of all classes, prevents our following their depositions singly ; 
but such accounts have been selected as are placed beyond 
doubt by the concurrent testimony, on oath before the court, 
of numerous credible witnesses. 

The results of the investigation are given in three sections ; 
the first of which details the course of events in the War 
Office on the 6th of October, 1848; the second, the imme- 
diate actors ; the last, the originators of the murder. 



FIRST SECTION. 



EVENTS IN THE WAR-OFFICE ON THE 6TH OF OCTOBER, 1848. 

On the night of the 5th and 6th of October, 1848, a depu- 
tation of the guard of the Faubourgs waited upon the 
War Minister with a written request that the Bichter 
battalion of grenadiers, which had received an order from 
the War Minister to proceed the next morning by railroad 
to Hungary, should be detained at Vienna. The deputation, 
in their representation, especially insisted on the fact, that 
the grenadiers belonged to the troops oftlie German Confedera- 
tion, and were on good terms with the inhabitants of Vienna. 
Count Latour referred the deputation to the commanding 
general, Count Auersperg, who, as might have been fore- 
seen, declared it to be out of the question to listen to their 
request. 

The same night the Minister of War was waited upon by 
the commander of the Academic Legion, Joseph Aigner, and 
informed that a fraternization had taken place in different 
public-houses between the troops of the grenadier battalion 
and the National Guards of the Wieden and Gumpendorf 
suburbs, when the grenadiers had been induced to promise 
to refuse to march, in case they were supported by the 
National Guards; that grenadiers and guardsmen of the 
suburbs had appeared in the so-called Aula in the course of 
the night, to assure themselves of the support of the students; 
and that Aigner, unable to restrain the Legion from sup- 
porting the grenadiers in their incipient insurrection, could 
only order the well-disposed students-in-law to the rail- 



330 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

road, with a view to frustrate as mucli as possible the 
intentions of the other students. 

To the representations of Aigner, Count Latour only 
answered, that the order for the departure of the grenadiers 
must be obeyed ; adding, that he had himself been warned 
that his life was in danger from at least twenty different 
quarters. 

At three o'clock in the morning he despatched his aide-de- 
camp, Major Baron Boxberg, to the commanding general, 
Count Auersperg, to inquire what arrangements had been 
made to insure the departure of the Bichter battalion of 
grenadiers, and at the same time to direct that at least two 
divisions of cavalry should be called out to assist in enforcing 
this step. 

Count Latour, moreover, informed the Minister of the 
Interior, Baron Doblhoff, through Major Boxberg and 
Lieutenant Walz, of the imminent danger of an emeute, 
with a request that all the means at his disposal should 
instantly be put in requisition to prevent a breach of the 
peace, and that for this purpose the National Guards should 
be called out. 

Baron Doblhoffj who was laid up with illness, did not 
send for his officials until an hour afterwards, when he 
informed the Minister of War that he doubted whether the 
National Guards would be inclined to march out before an 
actual outbreak ; but that he would give the necessary 
directions to their commander-in-chief. 

In consequence of the stormy events on the Tabor Bridge, 
early on the morning of the 6th of October, the whole body 
of ministers gradually assembled at the War Office, whither 
the majority of the generals in active service and the chief 
officers repaired, to place themselves at the disposal of the 
War Minister. 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 337 

Towards nine o'clock in the morning, whilst the com- 
manding general, Count Auersperg, was still present at the 
War Office, the melancholy news was brought from the 
Tabor of the partial destruction of the bridges, and the 
death of General Bredy. 

One order now rapidly succeeded another, when the 
commander of the Legion, Aigner, appeared at eleven o'clock 
at the War Office, with the tidings that two companies of 
the Legion, which he had placed for the protection of the 
station, had been fired upon by the military, and several 
students had been killed. Major Boxberg was despatched 
with an order to the Field - marshal - lieutenant Baron 
Csorich, who commanded at the Tabor, not to fire until he 
was actually attacked, and especially to avoid all unnecessary 
bloodshed. 

The aide-de-camp found the troops at the end of the main 
street of the Leopoldstadt ; the staff-officers commanding 
there in the absence of the lieutenant field-marshal, sent by 
him a request for assistance, having been attacked in the 
rear by a superior force, and compelled to retreat. 

On their hasty retreat, Major Boxberg saw the first bar- 
ricades erecting in the city, near the archbishop's palace, at 
the instigation of the students ; and, in consequence of the 
information which he carried to the War Minister, the 
commanding general was empowered at one o'clock p. m., to 
suppress the rising in the Leopoldstadt by force of arms, and 
to take possession of the bridges, — an order, which was 
afterwards repeated by two officers despatched to him. 

Meanwhile, some members of the Diet, — the President 
Strobach, Smolka, Fischhof, and others, — partly of their own 
accord, and partly at the invitation of the minister, repaired 
to the War Office, to take part in the consultations on the 
occurrences of the day. 

Z 



338 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

After twelve o'clock at noon began the sanguinary liots 
in the Stephensplatz, — the immediate prelude to those in 
the "War Office. The battalion of the Civic National Guards, 
who were drawn out to prevent the sounding of the alarm- 
bells, received a division of students who were bringing two 
cannon from the city arsenal to the Red Tower gate, with 
loud symptoms of discontent ; and when the students, pro- 
voked by this, sought to press upon the City Guard, the 
commander of the latter ordered them to load, and the 
students hastily retreated. 

The proletarians, enraged at this, mocked and insulted the 
Civic National Guards in the grossest manner, and threatened 
to fetch the guards of the Wieden Suburb to punish 
them. 

In fact, three battalions of the latter shortly afterwards 
made their appearance, between whom and the Civic Guards 
shots were instantly exchanged; whereupon the latter, forced 
back into the crowd, partly fled to St. Stephen's church. 

Thither they were pursued by the Wieden guards joined 
by the populace and students; the sacred edifice was pro- 
faned, and blood was shed upon the very steps of the altar. 

One of the deputies of the Diet, Dr. Fischhof, in the 
ministerial council, stated that the proclamation to the 
National Guards, issued with a view to stop this fratricidal 
contest, proved equally fruitless as a former appeal to the 
inhabitants of Vienna, issued on occasion of the occurrences 
at the Tabor. 

Meanwhile, other persons of the lower classes came to the 
War Office, with the urgent request for military support for 
the Civic Guards. 

From the deficiency of troops, and in order not to leave the 
War Office wholly unprotected, which was only guarded by a 
company of Deutschmeister Grenadiers, and three companies 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 339 

of pioneers, beside the usual troops of the main guard, Count 
Latour refused at first to listen to this demand. 

Pressed, however, by urgent entreaties from many sides, 
and especially by the officers of the [National Guard present, 
not to abandon the faithful Civic Guards, and the critical 
position of the latter being confirmed by one of the officers 
on duty on the Stephensplatz, the "War Minister, at two 
o'clock p.m., gave the order to the colonel of the pioneers, 
to advance to the Stephensplatz with his troops and two 
cannon, to clear the square of the populace in case of need by 
force of arms, and to liberate the well-affected Civic Guards 
who were shut up in the church ; but then to return imme- 
diately with the troops for the protection of the War Office. 

After Colonel Schon had vainly tried by addresses and 
long and repeated summons to induce the students, the 
guards from the suburbs, and the armed workmen, to eva- 
cuate the Stephensplatz, a discharge of musketry suddenly 
brought on a collision with the excited mob. 

With loud threats the armed populace stormed from all 
sides upon the colonel and his troops, and the tidings soon 
reached the War Office, that the pioneers, pressed by the 
superior force of the infuriated multitude, and the firing 
from the windows, were forced to retreat across the Graben, 
whilst in every quarter of the city, barricades, erected under 
the superintendence of students and foreigners, were rising 
up into immense bulwarks. 

The imminent apprehensions for the W^ar Office were 
lessened upon the arrival of the Landwehr battalion of 
[Nassau infantry, who entered the city by the Schottenthor ; 
but almost at the same time, and when Major-General Yon 
Prank, despatched to the Hofplatz, conveyed the order to 
act on the offensive only in case of an attack, the report of 
musketry and cannon resounded on the Hof. 

z2 



340 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

Almost at the same time came the announcement that the 
Nassau battalion, which was marching through the Bogner 
Street to the support of the pioneers, had been thrown into 
confusion by the fire from the windows of all the adjacent 
houses and the pressure of the proletarians streaming in 
masses from the streets, and tha,t the battalion had re- 
treated. 

It was three o'clock in the afternoon, when, on account of 
the continually increasing danger, the main guard entered 
the War Office, and the chief gate toward the Hofplatz, 
wliich had till then remained open, was closed. 

The garrison of the building, which was in this manner 
secured from without, consisted of 126 men of the second 
Deutschmeister grenadier company, under the command of 
Captain Brandmayer and Lieutenant-Major Carl Baron 
Grainger, who had been at the storming of the barricades 
in the Jagerzeil, on the 28th October, 1848, besides thirty- 
one grenadiers of the Imperial infantry, regiment No. 1, with 
their captain, Wilhelm Baron Yon Geusau, and Lieutenant 
Stanislaus Yon Marossany, both of the Duke of Nassau 
Infantry, No. 15, which formed the main guard ; together 
with six cannoniers and their corporal, and one of the four 
cannons that had been saved by the main guard, three 
baggage-waggons, nine moimted orderlies with their cor- 
poral of the light-horse regiment, Count Wrbna, No. 6 ; 
lastly, twelve mounted orderlies of the civic cavalry, under 
their commander. 

The cannon, loaded with canister-shot, was planted in 
the larger courtyard of the War Office, pointed towards the 
closed gate of the square ; on either side of it stood a division 
of the Deutschmeister Grenadiers, under Captain Brand- 
mayer, who had been joined by Captain Adolph Muth, of the 
2nd Bana frontier regiment, and Lieutenant Basil Brano- 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 341 

waizky, of the Warasdin-Creutzer frontier regiment, who hap- 
pened to be at the time in the War Office. 

It was resolved, that in case the chief gate shonld he forced, 
the grenadiers, after discharging the cannon, should attack 
the assailants at the point of the bayonet. 

The rest of these grenadiers, under Lieutenant-Major 
Baron Grainger, were partly destined for the defence of the 
three back gates, which were hastily barricaded, partly for 
the occupation of the windows of the first story ; whilst 
thirty-one grenadiers of the main guard, headed by Captain 
Baron Geusau and Lieutenant Marossany, under Major- 
General Yon Frank, who held the command in the building, 
under the immediate directions of the War Minister, were 
ordered to defend the landing on the front staircase, namely, 
that under the entrance to the Hofplatz. 

But a continually-increasing crowd had collected on this 
square, consisting of guards from the suburbs and armed 
workmen led by students, who in a manner besieged the 
building with loud shouts and tumult, in which were mingled 
cries of death to the War Minister, demanded the opening of 
the gates, and soon prepared to force them. 

At the time when the chief gate was closed, a student and 
lieutenant of the Academic Legion, Wilhelm Bausch, appeared 
among the assembled ministers in the most passionate excite- 
ment. 

He uttered violent reproaches against the War Minister for 
the bloodshed that had taken place, which he ascribed to the 
orders issued by Count Latour. 

The student Bausch it was who had once before, previous 
to the shutting of the chief gate, come to the War Minister, 
and obtained from him a promise of the cessation of hostili- 
ties, on condition that he should pacify the people, which, 
however, he had failed to do. 



342 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

When Rausch came a second time to the "War Minister, 
the latter asked liim what it was that he really wanted ; on 
which Rausch demanded, in a somewhat softened tone, a 
written ministerial order for the cessation of hostilities, 
undertaking in return to guarantee the pacification of the 
people. 

The assembled council of ministers retired into the adja- 
cent room, and in a few minutes the ministers returned to the 
aide-de-camp's apartment, in which Rausch awaited their 
determination ; when in great haste the following words, 
dictated by the War Minister himself, were written down, 
and ten or fifteen copies made :- — u The firing is everywhere 
to cease." 

These placards, written on half-sheets of paper, prepared 
by Count Latour, as well as by the minister Baron Wessen- 
berg, and partly also by Baron Doblhoff, were distributed 
among those present \ and the next thing was, to convey them 
to the knowledge of the revolted populace without endan- 
gering the safety of the War Office. 

For this purpose, Rausch, accompanied by Major-General 
Frank, and several others of those present, went to the chan- 
cery chamber, on the first story, mounted the parapet of an 
open window, and endeavoured, climbing round the window- 
frame,, to appease the enraged multitude in the square by 
reading aloud the written placards, and by the verbal assur- 
ance that all hostilities should cease. But his attempts were 
wholly fruitless : the crowd, who had meanwhile effected a 
considerable breach in the gate, uttered wild cries of, " The 
gate must be opened ! " whilst other voices demanded that the 
military should leave the building ; many, also, the resigna- 
tion, and some the death of the War Minister. 

The people from below threatened all who were standing 
at the window with their pikes and other weapons, and 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 343 

pointed muskets at them ; whereupon they retired to the 
War Minister, and announced to him the failure of their 
attempt, and the threatening attitude of the populace. 

A proposal made to the high-spirited count by some of the 
generals, to fight his way, under the protection of the grena- 
diers, to the glacis, or to the nearest barracks, was declined 
by him solely from the motive of not exposing the other 
ministers to open danger. 

Arrangements were already made in the courtyard, where 
the bursting open of the gate was every instant expected, to 
discharge the cannon ; and the grenadiers had closed their 
ranks, ready for a sortie ; when, at 4= o'clock, just as fresh 
tidings came of the impossibility of treating with the people, 
the Minister of War took the fatal resolution to open the 
gate. 

Doubtless he was influenced by the hope of pacifying the 
irritated minds of the people, and preventing further blood- 
shed, by a step evincing such manly confidence. 

For this purpose he himself gave the order to General Yon 
Frank, with these words, " Well then, open the gate, let the 
people in, and speak to them ! " 

At the same time he called out twice through the open 
window to the grenadiers in the courtyard, " Don't fire ! " 
and at the same instant, on his second order, the cannon, 
which was standing in the courtyard ready to be fired, was 
drawn aside, and pointed away from the gate. 

This step, prompted by such confidence, but so unexpected, 
operated on the behaviour and the subsequent conduct of the 
military only with a dispiriting and startling effect. 

According to the statement of many eye-witnesses, a 
sudden feeling of dejection and discouragement seized on the 
grenadiers. 

The consequence of this step was the more fatal, since the 



344 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

shortness of the time did not allow of withdrawing the 
soldiers, who were dispersed through the passages, and taking 
up a concentrated position corresponding to the altered posi- 
tion of affairs. 

To carry the order into effect, General Yon Frank repaired 
into the courtyard, where in his presence the outer chief 
gate, leading to the Hofplatz, was opened ; he then hastened 
to the War Minister, ordering the grenadiers in the court- 
yard to secure the foot of the staircase, and to let no one 
advance upon it. 

The insurgents, however, instantly pressed through the 
opened gate, after dragging to the ground a grenadier who 
had opposed their j)assage, and carrying him off prisoner. 
At first they only entered in small numbers, looking cau- 
tiously about in the first court ; but presently, encouraged by 
the immovable attitude of the grenadiers, ,the armed mob, 
many of them intoxicated, pressed onwards into the War 
Office, the lower rooms of which they gradually took entire 
possession of. 

Confused, and not knowing what course to follow, in con- 
sequence of the pacificatory orders that had been issued, the 
troops that still remained offered no resistance. 

Captain Baron Geusau, who, with Lieutenant Marossany and 
thirty-one grenadiers of the main guard of imperial infantry, 
was ordered to occupy the foot of the first staircase, quitted 
his post, contrary to the orders given him, soon after the 
opening of the gate, and led the grenadiers to the second story, 
in order thence to reach the passage conducting to the dwell- 
ing of the War Minister, and to defend this ; he soon, how- 
ever, returned, without any reason, and without executing 
his object, to the courtyard, remained there for about half 
an hour in a state of indecision* hemmed in by the masses of 
people, and lastly betook himself, without any purpose, and 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 34-5 

heedless of what was passing in the War Office, back to the 
main guard in the square, with his troops, who were them- 
selves indignant at such conduct. 

On the other hand, the insurgents had meanwhile forced 
their way amongst the Deutschmeister Grenadiers, called on 
them with threats to surrender their arms and ammunition, 
and endeavoured, by offers of drink and all kinds of promises, 
to induce them to desert. 

The Deutschmeister Grenadiers resolutely refused to give 
up their arms, and very few of them followed the National 
Guards into the neighbouring public-houses. Subsequently 
only two grenadiers went over to the mobile guard, and 
the fraternization proffered by the people to the military, 
enticingly and enthusiastically, was accepted by few. 

All order was, however, soon lost among the troops amidst 
such influences, and without the display of any energy on the 
part of their leaders ; a perfect confusion ensued, and the 
troops as well as the officers were alike helpless. 

The back staircase, in the direction of the bazaar, had been 
held for only a short time by the third division of Deutsch- 
meister Grenadiers, when these troops were likewise pressed 
upon and broken, and the armed multitude now rushed 
unopposed up this staircase, as they had before rushed up the 
other stairs, into the upper apartments, where they began the 
work of destruction. 

The forcible entrance of the people appeared to have 
deprived Captain Brandmayer of all presence of mind ; for, 
after having weakened his small force by sending one detach- 
ment to the main guard, to convey the wounded to the hos- 
pital, and ordered another portion of the grenadiers, without 
any object, to the first story, and thence again down into 
the courtyard, he and Lieutenant-Major Baron Grainger 
looked quietly on at the gradual dispersion of the troops. 



346 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

Many of these grenadiers retired of their own accord to 
the barracks, a portion went back to the stables of the War 
Office, whilst the rest stood, singly or in groups, amongst the 
crowd in the large courtyard. 

The occurrences which took place nearly at the same time 
in the upper story, of which we shall speak hereafter, pre- 
vented General Von Frank's adopting decisive measures 
against the disturbances in the courtyard. 

Thence it happened, that Captain Brandmayer sent the 
order to his troops, in reply to the question, put through 
their serjeant, as to what was to be done, to go home singly 
and unnoticed, which order most of them obeyed ; so that 
soon afterwards, at the time of the murder, about forty of the 
Deutschmeister Grenadiers were dispersed in the two courts 
among the people, whilst some of the Eichter battalion of 
grenadiers, who in the morning had gone over to the people, 
were also in the crowd. 

This apparent want of discipline, and indifference of the 
detachment of the guards to the fate of the minister, is how- 
ever in some manner explained by the fact, that, according 
both to the information received from the domestics, and 
from other suppositions, the general belief prevailed, that the 
War Minister was already in safety, and no longer in the 
building. 

This opinion was, indeed, purposely spread abroad by the 
generals, who had till then remained with Count Latour, at 
the time of their quitting the War Office, after the unhappy 
minister had declined their further assistance. 

The ministers, who still remained together when the armed 
crowd poured into the building, being urged on many sides 
to consult their own safety, did not separate until they saw 
the building in possession of the people. 

Baron Doblhoff and Hornbostl left the building first, and 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 347 

singly, and the latter hastened to the Diet, to state the 
danger in which his colleague was. 

The ministers Bach, Wessenberg, and Krauss, meanwhile, 
vainly endeavoured, and from two different sides, to reach the 
adjoining church, with the aid of the domestics ; the keys of 
the doors could not be found, and they dared not break open 
the doors, as the noise would be sure to attract the people in 
the adjacent courtyard. 

After this fruitless attempt at escape, the above-mentioned 
ministers succeeded singly, and partly in disguise, in escaping 
from the War Office. 

Count Latour, after the dismissal of the generals, had gone 
to his sleeping-apartment, slipped on the undress coat of his 
aide-de-camp Captain Niewiadomsky, and hastily put on his 
valet's hat, in which disguise he went, accompanied by his 
aide-de-camp Lieutenant-Major Walz, Captain Count Gon- 
drecourt, and Major Baron Smola, to the apartment of 
Captain Niewiadomsky, on the fourth story, whence they 
expected to be able to reach the loft of the adjoining 
church. 

This hope was, however, frustrated; for the door leading 
from that dwelling to the church-loft was walled up, and it 
was not an easy matter to break through it. 

After a further attempt to reach the loft of the War Office 
was abandoned, from a fear of betrayal by a lad who followed 
them stealthily, the War Minister was conducted to a hiding- 
place discovered by Major Baron Smola, 

This consisted of a small, dark chamber, closed by a glass 
door, used for the heating of several chimneys, which was 
reached on the right from the main staircase, in front of the 
house, by two spacious chancery chambers. 

Count Latour entered this small room, into which a chair 
was brought him, and the approach to the glass door was then 



348 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

stopped by a writing-table, placed before it ; tlie precaution 
also was taken to strew writings on the floor in both 
chambers, in order to make the people believe that these 
places had already been searched. 

Major Boxberg and Captain Gondrecourt remained on 
the landing near this hiding-place, to inform the minister 
of what passed in the building, and to guard him. Lieu- 
tenant-Major Walz and Captain Niewiadomsky went into the 
second and third stories, to observe what passed ; and the 
latter likewise into the dwelling of the minister ; but Major 
Baron Smola hastened to the general in command, Count 
Auersperg, on the glacis, to beg him to send immediate assist- 
ance in this imminent peril. 

The passage was, however, so impeded by the barricades 
and crowds in various parts of the city, that they had to go a 
roundabout way to reach the troops who were drawn up on 
the glacis of the Josephstadt : and as the commanding 
officer had just then received one of the papers issued by the 
ministers, ordering the cessation of hostilities, this circum- 
stance created a hesitation and delay in sending any imposing 
force to the hostile part of the city; so that the aid so urgently 
expected by the Minister of War did not arrive ! 

The insurgents, after gaining possession of the staircase, 
pressed onwards into the different chancery offices, and also 
into the minister's dwelling, crying out, " Latour must be 
hung 1" 

They burst open the locked doors, destroyed stoves, boxes, 
mirrors, and other furniture, especially every place or thing 
where it was imagined the minister might be concealed j 
threw books, writings, and maps, out of the windows into the 
streets, tried to do the same with the furniture, in which the 
guards of the faubourgs were especially active, whose frantic 
conduct was even designated as robber-like by the com- 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 340 

mander of the Legion, Aigner, who was riding past in the 
Seitzer Street. 

Many began plundering, and there would doubtless have 
been a complete devastation of the building, had not other 
occurrences soon called off the mob from the work of de- 
struction, and diverted their activity to a still greater 
object. 

Several letters found in the study of the War Minister, 
which were read aloud to the crowd by the students whc 
headed the mob, and interpreted in their sense, contributed 
not a little to heighten the bloodthirsty hostility of the 
people, expressed in loud insults and threats against their 
intended victim. 

The uniforms found there were torn in pieces, and distri- 
buted to those present ; many papers and letters were 
carried off in triumph to the Aula by the Academic Legion- 
aries, who also appropriated the more valuable portion of the 
booty. 

During this plundering, Major-General Yon Frank, in 
consequence of a violent knocking at the door of the Presi- 
dent's bureau, was going out into the passage, in undress, 
when he was stopped by the proletaires, and led off to the 
city arsenal as a hostage for the War Minister ; but Major 
Schindler, of the engineer corps, who, to satisfy the urgent 
impatience of Count Latour for military assistance, hastened 
across the staircase in order to survey the square, was seized 
in the roughest manner by the insurgents in the courtyard, 
who demanded Latour, and he was dangerously wounded. 

In the meanwhile a pressing demand was sent by the mem- 
bers present in the Diet to the President Strobach, at the 
War Office, to order the opening of a session, and on the 
news of the conflict at the War Office a deputation chosen 
by acclamation, and consisting of the deputies Goldmark, 



350 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

Borrosch, and Prince Ljubomirsky, was despatched for the 
purpose of obtaining from the ministers a cessation of hos- 
tilities, and the dismissal of the military from the city. 

This deputation, however, returned to the Diet, when they 
heard on their way that the fight was already ended. 

When the minister Hornbostl afterwards appeared in 
the Diet, and in answer to questions put by the deputy Bor- 
rosch, whether the ministers life was threatened, expressed 
his serious apprehensions on the subject, a new deputation, 
chosen on his motion, supported by Borrosch, consisting of the 
latter, Dr. Goldmark, and the first Vice-president Smolka, was 
expressly sent to the War Office for the protection of the 
minister's life. This deputation was on its way voluntarily 
joined by the deputies Dr. Fischhof, Sierakowsky, Wien- 
kowsky, and Zopfl. 

Proceeding to the War Office with white scarfs and a 
white flag, borne by Smolka, the deputies found the aide-de- 
camp Captain Niewiadomsky and the student Bausck, at 
the foot of the back staircase, in the midst of the raging 
populace, and hard pressed. 

Bausch had been shortly before in the company of two 
National Guards, one of whom uttered curses and threats 
against Count Latour. He had entered the ante-chamber of 
the latter, and inquired in an urgent manner for the War 
Minister, to whom he demanded to be immediately conducted. 

Captain ISTiewiadomsky, who observed a cocked musket in 
the hand of the guardsman, and heard at the same time the 
uproar of the multitude in the courtyard, suspected mischief, 
and endeavoured to divert the men from their demand of 
being led to the minister ; at the same time representing to 
them forcibly the unhappy consequences and disgrace that 
must follow the murder of the count and the destruction of 
the building. 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 351 

He succeeded in appeasing their rage, especially that of 
the student, and he made a kind of agreement with Rausch, 
that, with a view to pacify the people, the War Office should 
be occupied by National Guards and Academicians, and 
cleared of the military. 

"When Captain Niewiadomsky had obtained the verbal 
assent to this from the War Minister, who was hidden in the 
closet described above, he returned to the student, who was 
awaiting him in the second story, and they both went down 
stairs into the courtyard, where Rausch communicated this 
arrangement to those around. 

The latter appeared to be content ; but others, instigated 
by well-dressed people, who were busily gliding among the 
crowd, cried out, "We are ourselves National Guards, and 
will occupy the building." 

The aide-de-camp and Rausch were instantly surrounded 
by the people, dragged roughly about, and the latter was called 
a traitor ; but Mewiadomsky, on declaring to the crowd, who 
demanded with outcries, some the resignation, and others 
the death of Latour, that the count was no longer in the 
building, was declared to be a liar, by reason of the paper 
which had been issued by the War Minister, and distributed 
shortly before. 

When at length the captain, in answer to the question, 
where the minister was? put to him with a crowbar at his 
breast, announced himself as the aide-de-camp of the War 
Minister, he was still more harshly pressed, insulted, and 
was not set free until the arrival of the deputies from the 
Diet. 

One of the most cold-blooded of the insurgents, who 
called on the people incessantly not to let themselves be 
deceived and not to give way, was, according to a document 
lying before us, the ex-lieutenant Carl Unterschill, now a 



352 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

fugitive, who at an earlier period — not without his own 
fault — had resigned his commission and left the army. 

This man rushed into the War Office, at the head of the 
murderous rabble, calling out amidst the cries of his followers, 
"Down with him!" — and turning to the mob, "Quiet! 
the first blow is mine — I was an officer myself — he tyran- 
nized over me !" 

The deputy Borrosch, who had accompanied the deputies 
up to the first steps of the staircase, addressed the people in 
a fiery speech, as well as afterwards in the courtyard, in 
which he warned them urgently not to disgrace their glori- 
ous revolution with a criminal act, not to be judges where 
they were the accusers, and adding the assurance that the 
events of that day would be strictly investigated, and the 
ministers be called to an account. His address was interrupted, 
however, by some cries of death directed against the War 
Minister, and in the excitement of the moment, he threw 
his hat among the crowd, exclaiming in great agitation, 
that they should sooner make him. their victim ; for how- 
ever opposed he was to the War Minister, yet the path to 
the latter should lie over his (Borrosch's) dead body. 

At the same time the deputy Dr. Goldmark, who was 
standing close to the speaker, went up to one of the armed 
groups in the courtyard, in which also the inspector of the 
building was standing. 

On his asking whom they were seeking, the mob answered, 
" The Minister of War ;" and when the inspector assured 
them that the count was no longer in the building, the 
deputy Dr. Goldmark, who had been chosen by the Diet for 
the protection of the ministers life, hastily replied, address- 
ing the crowd, " Don't believe him • he [Count Latour] is still 
there!" 

On the staircase, meanwhile, the words of the deputy Bor- 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 353 

rosch were interrupted by the repeated cry, " All very fine ; 
but Latour must be hung ! " whilst, on the contrary, they 
were not without effect on the multitude gathered in the 
courtyard ; for a great part of them joined Borrosch, who 
rode off toward the Stephensplatz, hoping to appease the 
excitement by his departure, and left the War Office with him. 

Deceived by the appearance of a lull of the disturbances, 
although of short duration, in the building, the wife of the 
coachman, Josepha Dudek, who had kept her room from 
affright, stepped out into the passage before her dwelling, and 
found it guarded by two students, in the uniform of the 
Academic Legion, who, with crossed bayonets, held the stair- 
case of the back passage. 

In reply to her anxious question, what was going on, one 
of the guards answered, " Nothing, but that Latour must be 
hung I" and when the woman started, in horror, the student 
added, in a cold-blooded manner, " He [Latour] has been sen- 
tenced by the Diet and the Aula." 

Fresh swarms meanwhile crowded into the courtyard from 
the square, and the student Hausch, on the other side, com- 
ing down the back stairs, encouraged those in the court to 
follow him, exclaiming, " Gentlemen, Latour is there ;" 
whereupon they all crowded after him upstairs, exclaiming, 
" We must have him ! " 

The rest of the deputies, negotiating with the crowds who 
awaited them, were obliged to retreat to the second story, 
where they continued urgently to represent to the people 
that Count Latour, if guilty, would assuredly be judged, and 
must resign. 

Hastily seizing this word "resign," many of the crowd 
demanded of the Vice-president Smolka to effect the resigna- 
tion of Latour ; whilst others, not content with this, insisted 
on the ministers death. 

2A 



354 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

Smolka now went, accompanied only by Captain Niewia- 
domsky, and dismissing the deputies Dr. Fischhof and 
Sierakowsky, to the upper story. 

Of the other members of the deputation, Zopfl returned, 
immediately after Borrosch, to the Diet ; Wienkowsky, on 
the contrary, according to his own statement, on account 
of a speech urging the people to protect the minister, 
was carried off by the enraged mob into the neighbouring 
Seitzer, or Bazaar-court, and then threatened with death. 

Goldmark, after these occurrences in the courtyard, had 
hastened back to the passage on the first story, where he 
endeavoured to protect from insult and outrage two Italian 
standards, which had been taken by the people out of the 
Council-hall. 

Captain Niewiadomsky, who shortly before had been again 
assailed by armed workmen, headed by the student Bausch, 
in their search for the retreat of the count, led the crowd to 
a closed oratory leading from the ministers dwelling into 
the upper part of the church, under the pretext that the 
Minister of War had fled thither. 

He then led Dr. Smolka, who bore the white flag, to the 
fourth story, and met there, in the passage near the count's 
hiding-place, Major Baron Boxberg, who meanwhile had 
announced to the "War Minister the arrival of the deputation 
from the Diet, which he had observed from the window, and 
which had filled him with new hope of a peaceable termina- 
tion of affairs. 

After Niewiadomsky and Smolka had declared to the 
major that, in their opinion, there was no other means of 
safety to the Minister of War than the act of his resignation, 
Major Boxberg went to the hiding-place of the count, whilst 
Niewiadomsky led Dr. Smolka in the opposite direction, on 
the left, to a chancery- chamber commanding a view into the 



. 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 355 

square, which, was about fifty paces distant from the retreat 
of the minister, and from thence through two other rooms, 
the staircase-hall, a passage, and several doors. 

Count Latour soon after entered the large chancery-hall, 
accompanied by Major Boxberg, who had just communicated 
to him the proposal for his resignation : here Smolka awaited 
him, when the count declared with resolution, that he feared 
just as little the daggers of the murderers as he had done the 
balls in so many battles ; but that, in order to restore peace, 
he was ready, according to the wishes of the people, with 
the assent of his majesty, to give in his resignation ; where- 
upon Smolka gave him the solemn assurance, that he and 
the other deputies of the Diet would answer for his safety 
with honour and life. 

When Count Latour put the question to Smolka, whether 
it was necessary to announce his resignation in writing, the 
latter replied in the affirmative ; and the minister wrote 
with his own hand on a sheet of paper these words : " With 
the approval of his majesty, I resign my office as Minister of 
War." 

Smolka took this paper, signed by the minister, and left 
him, after having vainly endeavoured to persuade the count 
to omit the reservation "with the approval of his majesty," 
fearing that this might give rise to difficulties in dealing 
with the excited crowds. 

With the firm confidence of having now fulfilled the will 
of the people, and trusting to the promised protection of the 
deputies, the War Minister believed that all further danger 
was now removed, and deemed his longer stay in the dark 
closet unnecessary. 

When, however, in a few minutes the uproar of the un- 
satisfied multitude resounded through the passages, he fol- 
lowed, by the advice of Major Boxberg, the latter back into 

2a2 



35 G INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

the place of concealment ; whereupon the major again 
pushed the writing-table before the door of the apartment, 
and went out into the passage. 

Vice-president Smolka, holding up the paper he had re- 
ceived, called aloud to the masses of people who had 
already entered the third story, that the War Minister had 
resigned, adding (as Fischhof states), in order fully to quiet 
them : " The Chamber will impeach him.'' 

Several among the crowd appeared to be satisfied, but 
others doubted the resignation, and required the paper to be 
read out to them. 

Hardly did they hear that the act was made dependent on 
the approval of his majesty, when the storm burst out anew, 
and cries arose : " The emperor will never give his assent to 
the resignation ; we must do ourselves right, and arrest the 
War Minister." 

Other voices exclaimed, " The scoundrel is there — hang 
him ! hang him I " 

It was in fact evident, from the sand freshly-sprinkled 
upon the writing, that the count was in the building. 

The raging multitude now attacked the mediator, calling 
on him to discover the retreat of the count, some voices 
demanding his arrest, and others, with tumultuous cries, his 
death. 

Smolka declared that he would conduct them to the War 
Minister only on condition that a sufficient number of them 
solemnly engaged to protect him. 

At Fischhof s demand, twenty to twenty-five armed 
National Guards and workmen from the crowd now stepped 
forward, and under the leadership of Rausch, took an oath 
with their upraised fingers, by their honour, and with their 
lives, to protect that of the War Minister; whereupon 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 357 

Fischhof gave them the renewed assurance that Count 
Latour would be arraigned before an open court. 

How a part of these guards kept their oaths at the 
critical moment will be seen hereafter. 

Meanwhile Captain Niewiadomsky, who was guarded by 
two workmen armed with pikes, and who, it was hoped, 
would discover the hiding-place of the minister, contrived to 
escape by a side staircase, and, not trusting to the oath j ust 
taken by the guards, hastened down to seek help. 

In the passage between the two courtyards, he met Cap- 
tain Brandmayer, of the grenadiers, to whom he announced 
himself in his undress as the aide-de-camp of the War 
Minister, and whom he conjured, in the most sacred manner, 
to send up some troops to save the life of the minister, which 
was in such imminent peril. 

Brandmayer, whose men were dispersed in the greatest 
disorder, shrugged his shoulders in an undecided manner. 

Without waiting longer in the building, after this abortive 
attempt, the aide-de-camp hastened immediately to the Diet, 
to procure, if possible, assistance. 

But he had hardly arrived there, and was just calling 
upon the president Strobach for aid, when the tidings 
reached him of the frightful crime which had meanwhile 
been perpetrated in the War Office. 

On Smolka's suggestion that some of the appointed guard 
should accompany him upstairs to protect the count, three per- 
sons stepped forward from the crowd, — a National Guardsman, 
a youthful-looking Academician sword in hand, and the gar- 
dener of Oberdohling, Michael Neumayer, armed with a 
pioneer's sabre. 

With these persons, Smolka, Fischhof, and Sierakowsky, 
leaving behind the rest of the guards, who had sworn to 



358 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

protect the count, together with their leader Rausch, on 
the staircase between the third and fourth stories, in order to 
keep back the people, proceeded through the long passage in 
the fourth story to the chamber where the resignation of the 
minister had been signed, and where he was still expected to 
be hidden. 

They however found the chamber locked, and after vainly 
seeking the count in the adjacent ante-rooms, they at last 
met Major Boxberg in the passage, who, like all the other 
officers that had remained with the "War Minister after the 
entrance of the insurgents, was in undress. 

Vice-president Smolka begged him to lead them to the 
count, declaring that the people were not satisfied with the 
resignation, and threatened to search and break open every 
secret hole and corner. 

Smolka farther represented to the major that it was better 
to take the count prisoner, than to give him up to certain 
death, if he should be found by the people ; adding the 
assurance, that a special guard had sworn to protect the 
ministers life. 

They, the deputies of the Diet, who had guaranteed the 
count's safety, could only answer for his life, in case he 
allowed himself to be guarded by them. 

Although at first startled by these representations, the 
major nevertheless hastened, as evidently not an instant was 
to be lost, without making any reply, to the place of conceal- 
ment, in order to acquaint the count with what he had heard. 

The deputies, however, with their two companions, the 
young Academician and the gardener Neumayer, followed 
him. ; and when the War Minister, after the table was 
removed, stepped out of the chamber, Smolka repeated to 
him. the urgent necessity of his allowing himself to be 
guarded by the people, at the same time assuring him that 



MURDBR OF COUNT LATOUR. 359 

lie and the other deputies would protect him with their own 
lives. 

Count Latour seemed inclined to accede to this proposal, 
and only observed, that he might quite as well be watched in 
the aide-de-camp's apartment of Baron Boxberg, as in that dark 
hiding-place ; to this the deputies readily assented, and again 
assured the minister that he had no longer anything to fear. 

Whilst those present were crossing the passage, and 
through some of the chambers to the aide-de-camp's room 
near the well-staircase, Fischhof sent Sierakowsky to the 
people on the staircase, whose outcries kept drawing nearer, 
with a view to pacify them by announcing the War Minister's 
arrest. 

But when the other attendants of the count approached 
the aide-de-camp's room, some of the foremost of the insur- 
gents appeared in the passage ; whereupon the minister, by 
the advice of Major Boxberg, stepped through the next door 
on to a small landing, whilst Fischhof hastened to meet the 
tumultuous crowd. 

Meanwhile, however, the pretended guards on the chief 
staircase, between the third and fourth stories, who were left 
behind to keep back the crowd, partly themselves cherishing 
the worst intentions, folly mistrustful of the removal of 
the deputies, and goaded on by the impatient mob, who 
feared to lose their victim, went to seek the count, and 
to prevent his escape. 

The student Bausch therefore left the main staircase with 
three of the National Guards, among them Carl Brambosch 
(who was afterwards convicted), and went higher upstairs, 
searching the passages of the fourth story, where they in- 
quired of the Invalid placed there for the War Minister, 
broke open the door of a chancery-chamber with the butt- 
ends of their muskets, and hunted over the whole place. 



360 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

After relinquisliing further search, from ignorance of the 
locality, they returned to the expectant multitude, and were 
received by them with reproaches, insult, and threats. 
They were called black-yellow dogs, who had secreted the 
War Minister, and who must be kept as hostages for him. 

The mass of people now rolled onward into the fourth 
story, pressed into the passage, and uttering wild cries of 
" Where is Latour V rushed to the back door, before which 
two armed attendants of the deputies, an Academician, and 
the gardener Neumayer, were drawn up, and beside them 
Smolka and Major Boxberg. 

Smolka made only feeble attempts to keep back the in- 
creasing multitude, who were inflamed with rage and exciting 
drink ; and when the cry arose that Latour must come forth, 
the two armed guards declared that it was impossible to 
make a longer stand, and proposed to lead the count to a 
place of safety, whereupon there was a cry from several 
sides, " To the Arsenal ! To the Arsenal !" 

At this moment the War Minister himself came out of 
the door of the passage, and addressed the following words 
to the infuriated mob : — " My dear children, I am here. I 
have not feared balls and bayonets, nor dreaded any daggers, 
for I am a man of honour, and have a good conscience. You 
have offered yourselves to watch me ; do so. I surrender 
myself fearlessly into your hands. I will place myself under 
your guard. 5 ' 

This address was answered with a general cry from the 
savage multitude, " Strike him, hit him ! he is the cause that 
so many have fallen to-day ! " 

A circle was formed around the count, consisting chiefly of 
the above-mentioned guards, under the student Rausch : 
Fischhof took him by the arm on one side, and a National 
Guard on the other ; Smolka, Major Boxberg, andNeumayer, 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUIl. 361 

followed, and thus the mass moved onward, amidst the tumul- 
tuous cry of " Down with him ! " to the next, so-called, well 
staircase. 

Before reaching this, Major Baron Boxberg was forcibly 
separated from the minister's side by the pressing multitude. 

Hastening through the passage, he now sought to reach the 
chief staircase, and if possible to summon military help in the 
courtyard, whither also Lieutenant-Major "VValz and Captain 
Count Gondrecourt had already hastened down. 

The two latter met in the passage between the courts ; 
Lieutenant-Major Baron Grainger told him in a few words 
the peril of the War Minister, and were conducted by him to 
Captain Brandmayer, in the small courtyard, who just then 
stepped out of the house-inspector's dwelling. 

Upon their urgently entreating him to collect his men, 
many of whom were standing about in the two courtyards, 
to afford instant help to the War Minister, and at least to 
attempt to save him, representing that his honour and that 
of his company was at stake, Captain Brandmayer consulted 
with his lieutenant-major and the Serjeant, and then declared, 
shrugging his shoulders, as Captain Niewiadomsky had done 
before, that it was impossible to save the minister, — their 
force was too weak ! 

Lieutenant-Major Walz then turned to some of the grena- 
diers standing near, but his entreaties and representations all 
proved fruitless. 

Captain Baron Yon Geusau, at that time on the main 
guard, where his men, with arms in their hands, stood at the 
bar in front of the guard-room, appears, indeed, on hearing 
the cry, " We have got him ! " to have made an attempt to 
force his way through the gate of the square into the court- 
yard, but was prevented by the dense crowds. 

Whilst the War Minister was being led down, and already 



362 INVESTIGATION INTO SHE 

in the upper rooms of the building, the threats to hang him 
began to be increasingly loud and general. 

Beside the gardener Neumayer, the student of medicine 
(now a fugitive) J. Wedel, a member of the Academic- 
Legion and of the Students' Committee, made himself pro- 
minent by loud insults and threats against the count. 

Inflamed with thirst for murder, Wedel struck with his 
sword-hilt at one of the guards, who was protecting the 
minister with upraised musket. 

On reaching the lower stories, the defenders of the count 
were one by one forcibly pushed away from his side ; one 
in particular of those who endeavoured to take their places 
was ISTeumayer, who led the helpless count farther down, 
whilst the crowd following him, furnished with muskets, 
pikes, and all kinds of weapons, consisting of National Guards, 
several students, but chiefly of workmen, insulted the War 
Minister, who was given up to the rage of the populace, with 
the lowest expressions, and with shouts, demanded his death. 
Their brutality went so far, that they forced the hat of tho 
grey-headed old general quite on to his face in the most 
savage manner. 

From the passage at the foot of the staircase, Count Latour 
went into the larger courtyard, followed by the crowd, but 
as yet without any visible wound. 

Meanwhile the cry resounded on all sides in the courtyard, 
a They are bringing him ! " and a crowd of people collected, 
mostly armed, rapidly increasing in numbers, which met the 
count as he came out. 

Scarcely had this crowd perceived the War Minister, when 
immediately a savage shout broke forth, of " Murder him, — 
hang him ! " All rushed upon the unhappy count and his 
attendants, who were presssed together, partly separated, 
and pushed against the walls, on the left of the exit 



MUEDEH OF COUOT LATOUR. 363 

from the passage, where the multitude stood closely packed 
together in a confused mass. 

Here several of the murderers pulled out of their pockets, 
evidently prepared beforehand, thin cords, called rebschnure > 
a ball of which was flung in the face of the conductor of the 
count. 

This is partly explained by the circumstance, that previ- 
ously, during the searching of the house, a similar cord had 
been exhibited by an ill-dressed man, who added, " This is for 
Latour ;" as well as by the fact that, some time before the 
murder, a National Guardsman of the suburbs in the town 
arsenal, who was not discovered, had cut off a piece of cord, on 
hearing the same cry, and hastened with it to the War Office. 

In the pressure against the War Minister, the brutal and 
murderous mob first knocked off his hat ; a workman struck 
him several blows in the face, over the heads of the persons 
in front, with a cord several times doubled, exclaiming, " With 
that you will be hung ! " 

Another workman struck him several times in the face 
with his hand, and a National Guardsman of the suburbs 
seized the grey-headed count by his hair, and shook him so 
violently, that he staggered, and with difficulty held himself 
up by catching the hand of an unknown private individual, 
who pressed forward to protect him. 

Several of those about the War Minister in vain endea- 
voured, by representations, entreaties, and efforts, to save 
him ; they were pushed about in the crowd, flung back by 
the threatening and murderous horde from the victim, who 
was now abandoned to the rage of the populace, and by 
degrees entirely separated from him. 

Dr. Fischhof asserts, that he averted with his uplifted 
arm the blow of a hammer aimed at the count's head, when 
he was himself torn from the ministers side. 



364 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

Smolka declares that, in his endeavours to save the War 
Minister, he received a blow from the butt-end of a musket, 
which smashed his watch, — that in the tumult his scarf and 
flag were torn from him, and he was pushed away from the 
count's side, just as he had called out to Sierakowsky to 
pacify the people with his powerful voice. 

Sierakowsky affirms, that, on Smolka's summons, and with 
the white flag which the latter handed to him, he flung him- 
•self into the raging crowd which was pressing upon the 
minister, but was forced back into the middle of the court- 
yard by unknown persons, with the exclamation, " If you are 
an honest man, have nothing to do with a scoundrel!" 

Numerous eye-witnesses, principally belonging to the 
lower classes, mention, without any more precise statement, 
three or four civilians, some National Guards, and several 
witnesses, also two or three students, who for some time 
endeavoured to keep off the pressure from the minister, and 
to save him. 

It is, however, certain, that Captain Count Gondrecourt, 
who, after his fruitless attempt with Captain Brandmayer, 
had again forced his way to the count's side, in order to 
protect him, pushed him against the wall, placed himself 
with his body before the minister, and to the last minute 
literally covered him in this manner, until he was himself 
seized by the neck by a National Guardsman, and forced 
away amidst the most frightful threats. 

The first visible wounds inflicted on the unhappy count 
were followed in the courtyard by a stroke with a pioneer's 
sabre on the head, and this blow was the signal for a mur- 
derous scene, which in barbarity has scarcely a parallel in 
modern history, and is certainly unsurpassed by any. 

It is impossible to describe accurately the wounds which 
followed this sabre-stroke, the depositions of the witnesses 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 365 

and actors not altogether agreeing in this respect; a fact 
which is easily explained by the rapidity with which the 
attacks followed one another, many simultaneous wounds, 
and by the tumultuous perpetration of the murder. 

Nearly at the same instant, the innocent victim of popular 
rage received a blow with an iron bar on his head, a stroke 
with a hammer on the same part, a thrust with an iron pike, 
and a bayonet-wound, the two latter in the stomach ; on 
which the minister sank to the earth, whilst on all sides he 
was beaten, thrust at, wounded, with the butt-ends of 
muskets, sabres, pikes, iron bars, bayonets, clubs, even with 
a scythe, just as the clock in the War Office had struck a 
quarter to four. 

The savage, inhuman multitude pressed on the minister, 
as he lay upon the ground, mortally wounded, jumped on the 
mangled body, and trod upon him with their feet ; when the 
count still gave signs of life, snatching convulsively with his 
right hand at a bayonet, with which he was wounded in the 
flank, to ward it off from him. 

The body, covered with blood, was then dragged by the 
feet across part of the courtyard, with the head beating 
against the pavement, amidst the hideous shouts of joy from 
the raging mob, and the cry of " Hang him ! " He was then 
dragged back to the wall by the passage, and pulled up to the 
bars of the middle window in the court, with one of the 
cords, which were eagerly offered by several persons present. 

Two civic sharpshooters endeavoured at the same time to 
raise the body with their bayonets, supported by others, to 
the wall. 

The cord, however, which was not strong enough for this 
weight, snapped in two, and the count fell to the ground ; 
whereupon a white leather strap was brought, hung round 
his neck, and to tins was fastened the cord ; and in this 



366 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

manner his body was dragged to another window, in the front 
corner of the courtyard, his head continually striking against 
the stone pavement. 

After the body fell from the window-bars, the dying man 
had still a rattling in. the throat whilst on the ground, and 
even at the commencement of his being dragged to the comer 
window, drew a deep breath. 

Many of the maddened crowd endeavoured even to press 
forward after this horrible act, in order to heap ill-treatment 
on the dead body. 

Even women were seen jumping on the body, screaming, 
stamping on him with their feet, and triumphantly exclaim- 
ing, " Dog, you are done for now !" 

Amid such barbarous scenes the dead body was dragged by 
the feet through the arched gate leading to the square, 
whilst the clothes were pulled off piecemeal, and the mur- 
derers fought for the shreds. 

Upon several of the National Guards forcing their way in 
from the square, the cry suddenly arose, "Here come the 
grenadiers !" whereupon in an instant the cowardly mob fled 
in affright, leaving behind the dead body under the gateway, 
to the back-door ; but presently, emboldened again by the 
cry that it was only a false alarm, they returned to their 
work of horror, dragged the body to the lamp-post, into the 
square in front of the War Office, fetched a ladder from a 
neighbouring house, and hung it by another white leather 
strap, with a cord attached to it, to the colossal cast-iron 
lamp-post. 

The corpse was now instantly stripped naked, the very 
body-linen being torn off in pieces, and with every possible 
atrocity, ill-treated, insulted, mutilated, and finally used as a 
target by several of the National Guards, in firing off their 
muskets. 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 367 

Some persons who expressed compassion and horror at 
these revolting proceedings were insulted and ill-treated by 
the populace, and put in peril of their lives. 

It was not till a later hour at night, that any one had the 
courage to cover the mutilated and naked bodv with a linen 
cloth. 

After midnight it was taken down by one of the National 
Guards of Penzing, assisted by other guards, and carried to 
the military hospital, from a feeling of humanity, in spite of 
the remonstrances of one of the Academic Legion, who de- 
manded that the body should be left to hang longer on the 
lamp-post, as an example. 

Whilst the murderers, still dripping with blood, immedi- 
ately after the deed ran to the Aula with wild cries of joy, 
to get their blood-money, and there formed triumphant pro- 
cessions ; many people of both sexes also collected in the 
courtyard of the War Office, around the pool of blood in 
front of the second grated window, and dipped their hand- 
kerchiefs in the blood, taking it up in their hands, and 
bedaubing their clothes and weapons with it. 

In many parts of the city and the suburbs, the effects, 
remnants of clothes — nay, even portions torn from the body 
of the victim — were publicly exposed to view, in a boastful 
manner, distributed, and even formally bought and sold. 

The physicians called in at the examination of the body 
before the court, declare in their verdict, that the War 
Minister, Count Latour, was tortured to death in the strictest 
sense of the word. 

Beside small extravasations of blood, abrasions, and lacerated 
wounds, forty-three incised wounds were pointed out in the 
body, partly effected by strokes, partly by thrusts, and partly 
by shot-wounds. 

Of these wounds thirty-one (namely, ten on the head, one 



368 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

on the neck, four on the breast, seven on the belly, and 
nine on the upper and under limbs) presented distinct 
signs of the reaction of life ; and consequently these were 
inflicted upon the unhappy victim of blind popular fury 
whilst still alive. 

Of these thirty-one wounds, according to the degrees of 
their dangerous character, five were, in the opinion of the 
scientific men, of a serious nature, five dangerous, and one 
fatal. 

On the right side of the head especially, the parietal, tem- 
poral, and frontal bones were shattered into many pieces ; 
and although this shattering of the skull was undoubtedly of 
a fatal character, yet death did not instantly ensue, and in 
fact the wounded man continued to live, although in a state 
of departing consciousness, even when the attempt was made 
to strangle him on the window-bars in the courtyard, and 
even at the instant when the cord broke and the body fell to 
the ground. 

The exact moment of death, which followed this attempt 
at strangulation, cannot precisely be ascertained. 

The smashing of the skull, however, was very probably 
the fatal wound, of which the War Minister afterwards 
died ; but the attempt at strangulation might, as well as 
the numerous other acts of ill-treatment and torture, have 
accelerated death, as the dangerous wounds in themselves, 
especially under mutual influences, and in connection with 
the serious and light wounds, must have increased the danger 
of death to the highest degree. 

In conclusion, it was remarked that the fury of the popu- 
lace, not content with having killed their unhappy victim 
with inhuman barbarity, consummated the atrocity of the 
act by hewing in pieces the mangled limbs, to satisfy the 
lust for vengeance of the mad populace. 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 369 



SECOND SECTION. 



DIRECT AGENTS CONVICTED OF THE CRIME. 

Amongst the ninety-nine persons arrested and subjected 
to examination by the military court on suspicion of having 
taken an active part in this murder, eleven were declared 
guilty, and sentenced. 

The grounds of accusation, arising partly out of their 
own confessions, and partly from other statements, are 
extracted and given here hi a compressed form. Among 
the most prominent of these persons is : — 

1. Franz Wangler, a native of Tyss, in the Ellbogen Cir- 
cle in Bohemia ; forty-six years of age, a Catholic, widower, 
without children, cohabiting with a girl of loose character ; of 
late a journeyman smith on the Yienna-Gloggnitz Railroad, 
formerly a journeyman and stable-lad ; known also by the 
nicknames of " Fiakersckmied," and " Fiakerfranz ;" has 
been twice before punished for the crime of stealing ; is 
described as being an industrious workman, but rough, 
quarrelsome, very much given to drink, eccentric, and taking 
part in every emeute. 

After a long and obstinate denial, he made a confession, 
of which the following is the substance, before the court, 
and repeated it on different examinations. 

As early as the 13th of March, 1848, the students at 
Vienna entered into an alliance with the workmen of the 
Southern Railroad, and frequently visited them at their 
work. 

They told them to prepare pikes, ostensibly only for the 

2 B 



370 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

protection of the railroad ; and since that time these work- 
men were summoned by the Academicians on occasion of 
every tumult and emeute in the city, for the defence of 
liberty. 

On such occasions, other Academic Legionists appeared at 
every instant at the railway-station, and raised there an 
alarm, when the whole swarm of armed workmen were 
obliged to follow them, and do what they required. 

If any one of the workmen refused to join them, he was 
compelled to do so by the rest. 

On the 6th of October, 1848, in the forenoon, two 
students appeared with a summons to the railway-workmen, 
to go armed to the University-square, at the same time 
addressing speeches to the men, which Wangler did not 
hear. 

As no one would leave work before noon, two students 
(unknown to witness) again came to the railway-station, 
between twelve and one o'clock, with a fresh mgent sum- 
mons j the whole crowd of armed workmen, and among 
them Wangler, with his pointed iron pike, followed them to 
the city, to the University-square. 

Numbers of papers, printed with Eoman letters, were here 
distributed among them, the contents of which Wangler did 
not understand, but which he heard called Liberty-tickets 
(FreiheitszetteT) ; these, by the order of the students, they 
affixed to their caps. 

After this preparation, the cry suddenly arose among the 
workmen, "Latour must be hung 3" and upon the mention 
of the minister Bach, and the name of a lady of high rank, 
with a similar view, the whole crowd proceeded from the 
Aula toward the Hofplatz, with the cry, * To the War 
Office!" 

The armed crowd stood in front of the War Office until 



MUSDEE OF COUNT LATOUR. 371 

the gate, which had been kept locked, was opened, through 
which they poured into the courtyard. 

When, at the sight of the War Minister being dragged 
down the staircase, a general cry arose in the courtyard, 
that he must be hung, the witness likewise forced his way 
through the crowd, and gave the count a thrust in the upper 
part of his body with his pike, at a time when the War 
Minister was still standing upright, and before he received 
the blow of the hammer from a smith, which simultaneously 
with many other blows felled him to the ground. 

It is worthy of note, that Wangler, when shaken during 
the examination by a powerful emotion, and led to make a 
confession, mentioned in the first moment of the struggle in 
his mind a blow, which he had inflicted on the count with 
his iron pole. 

But hardly had this admission escaped his lips, when, 
correcting himself, he endeavoured to maintain that he had 
merely, as he believed, wounded the count on the shoulder 
with a thrust, in which assertion he adhered until his con- 
viction. 

The inspection by the court of one of these iron poles of 
the Gloggnitz Railway workmen, after Wangler's first 
examination, and its consequent conviction that the force 
of a blow inflicted with such a weapon must at least 
have equalled the blow of a hammer, together with many 
other circumstances arising out of the case, too long to 
enumerate here, raised even then a well-founded presump- 
tion, that it was this blow that shattered the minister's 
skull. 

Some of the eye-witnesses of the deed mention a young, 
small, thick-set workman; and others, an elderly, tall 
smith, with bristly hair and a sooty face, the first of 
whom gave the count a blow on the head with his not very 

2b2 



372 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

heavy hammer; moreover, several witnesses, especially Dr. 
Fischhof, who was standing close by, and as a medical man 
understood the matter, were of opinion that this blow could 
not have been fatal. 

On the contrary, the blow given by the smith, who 
was described as corresponding in personal appearance to 
Wangler, was, according to some witnesses, also inflicted on 
the head of the "War Minister, with a hammer j according to 
others, with an iron pole; and with snch force, that several 
of the witnesses could not for a long time dismiss the 
recollection of the fearful sound which it caused. 

An observer of the horrible scene, who was standing 
behind the fastened window of one of the rooms in the 
court, on the first story, heard with perfect distinctness the 
fatal blow. 

There is no doubt that the fellow with the hammer, as 
well as the older smith, had a hand in the crime, but that 
the decisive blow was first given by the latter ; and the 
opinion, that Wangler was this identical smith, received 
incontestable support, from the deposition of a fresh eye- 
witness, who did not come forward until after Wangler's 
execution, and from the personal description given by him 
of the chief actor in the scene. 

According to the confession of Wangler, given not with- 
out reserve, when the War Minister was dragged to the 
lamp-post in the square, and the mob there demanded that 
he should be hung, he, the accused, pulled off his jacket, 
which he gave to Rosina Lang, a girl standing close by ; he 
then lifted up the body from beneath, from which the clothes 
were pulled off in rags, and thus with the help of two other 
workmen, who were unknown to him, and one of whom was 
standing on the ladder, acted the part of hangman. 

After finishing this task, he states that he put on Ms 



BtGRDER OF COUXT LATOUR. 373 

jacket, pulling down liis shirt-sleeves, and, as he himself 
expressly confesses, addressed the following horrifying speech 
to the large multitude : — " So then we have done, and now 
let's go and fetch the minister Bach, and he shall come 
there" (Wangler pointed to the second arm of the lamp- 
post, and called on the people three times, with upraised 
arms, to tell him where the minister Bach dwelt) ; iC and 
there'' (pointing to the third arm of the lamp-post) " comes 
the * * * '"." (The accused here mentioned the name of 
the same high-born lady, whose death had been demanded in 
the Aula.) 

Thereupon, the accused said, that he hastened with the 
swarm of murderers to the University-square, where he placed 
Ms pike by the water-basin there, and on this occasion heard 
other workmen coming from the University say that they 
had been paid in the Aula for their share in the murder, 
and that they were going to a public-house, to refresh them- 
selves with the money they had received. 

He moreover asserted, that he had himself neither re- 
ceived nor asked for any money, but that he likewise went 
from the Aula to a neighbouring public-house, and from 
thence home. 

On being questioned as to Ins reasons for what he had 
done, he, in the outburst of despair, and in the presentiment 
of the punishment that awaited him, cursed the students, 
who had seduced him and his comrades, and (as he expressed 
himself) had completely blinded them ; exclaiming, that 
had it not been for the instigation of the Academicians, it 
would never have come into Ins head even to think of the 
War Minister, who was a perfect stranger to him, much less 
to do him any harm. 

2. The second actor in the scene, Carl Brambosch, was a 
native of Yiemia, in Austria., twenty-two years of age, a 



374 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

Catholic, unmarried \ a journeyman goldsmith and a house- 
painter. When the authorities were on his track, shortly 
before his arrest, he enrolled himself in the Hoch and 
Deutschmeister I. R. infantry regiment as a private. 

In his sixteenth year he had undergone a preliminary 
examination in the Vienna Criminal Court, on the charge 
of having attempted the murder and robbery of a woman ; 
but he was soon released, on the removal of the suspicion. 

His companions describe him as light-headed, idle, cun- 
ning, and eccentric on political subjects : he is said to have 
frequently visited the Aula — the source at that time of the 
corruption of the workmen, and the seduction of the credu- 
lous citizens. 

The abridged contents of his confessions state the facts, 
that he, as a National Guard of the Eighth Mariahilf sub- 
xu'ban district, went, on the 6th of October, 1848, about 
two o'clock p.m., with a portion of the fifth company, on 
the alarm being given, into the city, to the bastion of the 
Salzgries barracks, in order to cover the artillery ; and that 
from thence, at a little past three o'clock, he went, at the 
invitation of, and in company with, the glovemaker's assist- 
ant and Guardsman Michael Wilhelm, into the city, to buy 
tobacco ; where, following the stream of people, he proceeded 
into the neighbourhood of the War Office, where he met 
with Wilhelm in the Bazaar-court. 

Just then a man was, from the window of the first story, 
addressing the large crowd collected in the courtyard, con- 
sisting of all classes, but chiefly of workmen armed with 
pikes. Brambosch heard only the conclusion of this speech, 
the purport of which was a summons to proceed to the War 
Office, and to bring Count Latour to account before a 
general tribunal of the people, for his order to despatch the 
German troops from Vienna. 



MUKDEK OF COUNT LATOUS. 375 

Incited by this speech against the War Minister, the 
whole mass of people, and among the rest Brambosch and 
Wilhelm, both armed with muskets and bayonets, streamed 
forth, uttering a cry of, " To the War Office 1" in order to 
seek the count. 

After first penetrating into his dwelling-room, and search- 
ing every corner where it was thought he might be concealed, 
even to the very book-chests, they went to the corridor 
on the staircase, where some voices among the crowd were 
already demanding the death of the count. 

Three deputies here in vain attempted to keep back the 
raging multitude, who were calling out for the War Minister, 
assuring them that he was no longer in the building. The 
people obstinately demanded him, and his death ; whereupon, 
the deputies promised to give the count up to the people, 
upon the condition that no harm should be done to him, and 
that he should be led to the Diet. 

Brambosch and Wilhelm were among those twenty guards 
whom Fischhof had called out and made to swear to protect 
the life of the War Minister, when Fischhof gave them the 
assurance, as Brambosch asserts, that Count Latour should 
be brought before an open court. 

Brambosch was also one of those three guards, who, after- 
wards, with the student Bausch, at the instigation of the 
crowd on the stairs between the third and fourth stories, 
which had grown mistrustful of the deputies of the Diet, 
sought for the War Minister, and who, with this object, pro- 
ceeded from the stairs to the passages on the fourth story. 

On their return to the other insurgents without success, 
they were received by the latter with insults and reproaches. 

According to Brambosch's statement, Wilhelm behaved in 
this instance with especial fury ; so much so, as to point liis 
bayonet at accused's breast^ calling him a dog, who secreted 



376 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

Latour, and was bribed by him; abusing him, and adding, 
that Latour must come out, for he was a bad main who de- 
ceived the people, and who must now die. 

In this way, and beset by the rest with threats, Bram- 
bosch says that he himself was worked into a fury against 
the count ; and that when he, together with the sworn 
guard of protection, led the latter down into the courtyard, 
and the cry arose there at the sight of the War Minister, of 
" Hang him ! — kill him !" the accused also inflicted on him 
several blows with the butt-end of his musket, at the mo- 
ment when the victim, with his face covered with blood, 
struck by an iron pole or a hammer on the head, and by a 
pike in the face, sank to the ground. 

Brambosch likewise saw the body drawn up to the window- 
grating, snatched a narrow strip of linen and a piece of black 
cloth from one of the people under the gateway of the War 
Office, where the mob were scrambling for the torn clothes 
of the murdered man, and then returned to the bastion to 
the other guards, where he displayed and distributed the 
pieces. 

He accuses Wilhelm of having, by his instigations, been 
the sole cause of his misfortunes ; adding, that he must ac- 
cuse him of this in court. 

Dming the tumult in the courtyard, he says that he lost 
sight of Wilhelm, and met him first again on the bastion, 
where Wilhelm tried to take him to the arsenal. 

The accused, however, would not that day have anythiug 
more to do with the affair, having already had enough. 

Brambosch also states that, on the 8th of October, two 
days after the murder, he himself heard, in a saloon on the 
first story of the Aula, a student say, who was addressing 
the people and inciting them to take up arms and be 
courageous, that on the previous day a smith of the railroad, 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 377 

who liacl struck Count Latour the blow with a hammer, and 
whose name the student mentioned, appeared at the Aula to 
demand his reward ; but that nothing could be given him, as 
there was no money left. 

Accused further stated, that he had taken part in the 
latest October insurrection, in so far as being enrolled as a 
man of trust in his company, the Select Corps, he had joined 
in the conflict against the imperial troops in the Brigittenau 
on the 22nd and 23rd of October, but on the 28th of Octo- 
ber had drawn several peaceable National Guards of the 
faubourgs from their homes, by threats, to the defence of 
the small lines at Marialiilf. 

Bursting into tears, he bewailed his having brought so 
much grief on his mother, a Frenchwoman, and the wife of 
a camp-baker, who, according to his statement, had received 
the cross of the Legion of Honour in the Russian campaign, 
for having saved Napoleon : and he envied the fate of his 
eleven brothers, who had all fallen with arms in their hands 
in the French service, whilst an ignominious death awaited 
him the last ! 

3. Thomas Jurhovich, the third accomplice, was born at 
Peruchich, in the circle of the Ottochan second Frontier in- 
fantry regiment ; thirty-six years of age, a Catholic, unmar- 
ried, habitually cohabiting with different servant-girls, the 
father of two young children ; authorized cravat-maker on 
the Wieden : he had never before been punished. 

He is described as habitually careless, rude, niggardly, 
quarrelsome, and at the same time close; addicted to drink, 
especially when he could obtain it at the cost of others, and 
passionately given to democratic ideas. 

In his possession was found a collection of seditious papers, 
as was the case with most of the accused. 

When a journeyman, he used, on the slightest occasion, to 



378 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

threaten his comrades with his scissors or flat-iron, and from 
his impetuous and violent behaviour, it was at that time pre- 
dicted that he would come to the gallows. 

His confession, made after many examinations, fall of lies 
and reservation, is as follows : — 

On the 6th of October, 1848, at noon, in consequence of 
alarms, he went as a National Guard of the first company of 
the seventh circle of the Wieden Faubourg, with his com- 
pany into the city to the Heel Tower Gate, and thence with 
a cannon taken by them from the city arsenal to the bas- 
tion above the Caroline Gate. 

Out of joy at having escaped unwounded on the Stephens- 
platz, where the rear divisions of his battalion had been fired 
upon by the Civic Guards, he repaired, after two o'clock, 
from the bastion to a neighbouring public-house, and from 
thonce, slightly intoxicated, to the Aula with his bayoneted 
musket, and then straight to the courtyard, where he forced 
his way with the rest of the crowd into the court of the 
War Office. 

Here he was standing in the throng of people, when the 
War Minister was- brought from the upper stories into the 
court. 

Seeing the crowd now pressing upon the count with up- 
lifted weapons, and the universal animosity against him, he 
himself came to share their rage, and forcing his way through 
the mass of people, resolved himself to give the War Minis- 
ter a bayonet-thrust, and had he been able, he would have 
inflicted several upon him. 

When however he reached the count, the latter was al- 
ready lying on the ground ; but the accused did not know 
whether he still lived or was already dead. 

At the moment when Jurkovich thrust at the War 
Minister with his bayonet, he slipped down, pressed by the 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUE. 379 

crowd, and without having hit the count, he stepped into a 
pool of blood on the ground at the count's head, and his 
right boot and the lower part of his trousers were much 
stained. 

Then being unable, as he would gladly have done, to give 
another thrust at the count, he quitted the War Office ; 
taking from a workman at the gate, who was cutting a 
general's uniform into pieces and distributing them, one 
of these pieces, and then hastened exultingly to the Uni- 
versity. 

On his way, at the Lugeck, he heard people among the 
crowd in the streets crying out, that those who had killed 
Latour, would receive for it thirty gulden each at the Aula, 
and that their names would be inscribed in a book there. 

His tailoring business having gone badly, he wished to 
come in for a share of this pay, and holding up the spotted 
cloth, and trusting to the traces of blood visible on him, he 
cried out, " I had also a hand in it !" whereupon the people 
lifted him up in their arms with shouts of bravo and exul- 
tation, and thus carried him about in triumph to the Uni- 
versity-square. 

But when the other people, fresh come from the "War 
Office, saw him, they cried out, " That is not he, that is 
not the true one : this man deserves no reward !" and there- 
upon they drove him away, without his getting a kreutzer, 
whilst the rest of the murderers went to the Aula. 

It is a striking fact, on the contrary, that Jurkovich, in his 
examinations, so often, and mostly of himself, came to speak 
of the blood-money, and sometimes cursed the expected 
thirty florins, with a feeling of bitter contrition, as the cause 
of his misfortune ; adding, of his own accord, that he was 
sure he deserved the same reward as the man with the 
hammer ! 



380 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

Tlie triumphal procession of the accused at the Aula is 
confirmed not only by his own confession, but by many eye- 
witnesses on oath, who added, that at the time several of the 
other murderers accompanied him, some with bloody weapons, 
whilst Jurkovich, in his National Guard uniform, was the 
only one carried on the people's shoulders. 

From the Aula, Jurkovich went, as he further relates in 
the course of his confession, accompanied by a great crowd 
of people, on to the bastion to his company, where he boasted 
publicly of his deed, and distributed the pieces of the cloth 
uniform he had brought with him. 

His look at that time is described by the witnesses as 
frightful and revolting. 

He was in the utmost excitement, his eyes rolled, his hair 
stood upright ; both hands, his shirt-sleeves, his right foot, 
and the lower part of his trousers were saturated with 
blood, and his whole appearance, literally dripping with 
blood, was so wild and hideous, that most of the guards 
turned from him with horror and disgust. 

In the evening again, on his return home from the bastion, 
Jurkovich again boasted in the open street at the Freihaus, 
in the Wieden Suburb, of his bravery in the murder, in 
the presence of a great concourse of people. 

After the entrance of the imperial troops into the city, 
Jurkovich, as he himself acknowledged, had no longer a 
quiet hour; he was in continual dread of being arrested, 
made arrangements in his house to provide against the 
chance of this, and sought advice of those companions of his 
among the guards who had seen him, on the 6th October, 
on the bastion, whether he had not better fly. He cut off 
his beard, was all night bathed in perspiration, according to 
the testimony of his housekeeper, and his sleep was broken 
by exclamations of anxiety. 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 381 

"Waiigler, Brambosch, as well as most of tlie other accom- 
plices, were also tormented by a similar disquiet and dread, 
and they all took pains to disfigure their appearance as much 
as possible, by cutting off their beards, to prevent their 
beins: recognised. 

4. Franz Kohl, was born in the Eisengrab district and 
lordship of Gfdhl, in Lower Austria ; twenty-two years of 
age, a Catholic, unmarried ; a journeyman joiner by trade. 

Nothing came out unfavourable to his previous life and 
character, but at his house, among numerous effects, were 
found many democratic street-circulars and other papers. 

Arrested in consequence of these suspicious circumstances 
in his own house, whither he went, on the 12th October, 
1848, from Vienna, he stated the following particulars in 
his examination : — 

On the 6th October, 1848, he came into the city in the 
afternoon, to the Hofplatz, from the Wieden Suburb, where 
he was at that time at work, in the employ of a joiner, when 
a cry was raised by a large concourse of people that Latour 
was to be hung. 

One National Guardsman of his own suburb (an Hungarian, 
named Joseph Major), was especially active in inciting the 
people, and drew on the crowd by motioning with his naked 
sword, and then incited them to force their way into the 
building. Hereupon the whole swarm, consisting chiefly of 
guards and armed railway-workmen (the accused amongst 
the rest), proceeded, with a general cry that Latour must 
be found, into the War Office, and up the back chief staircase, 
into several rooms on the first story, which, it was said, were 
the apartments of the Yfar Minister. 

Following the example of the crowd, and in order not to 
be laughed at by his comrades at home as a coward, Kohl 
said that he here helped in the search for the count, thinking* 



382 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

that the people would be satisfied with merely taking him 
prisoner. 

They however only found a field-iiniform, with a hat and 
plume of feathers ; which were immediately torn in pieces and 
distributed, the accused taking a military cross which had 
been attached to the uniform. 

On hearing the cry, which suddenly burst forth in the 
courtyard, " They have got Mm : he must be hung !" Kohl 
hastened down with the rest, and on this occasion took from 
a workman, whom he met on the staircase, an iron two-pronged 
fork fastened to a wooden handle (many of which were taken 
from the registry-offices in the plunder at that time), in 
order, as he states, to show his comrades at home that he was 
present at the scene, and did not want courage. 

When the accused went down into the court, the count 
had just been brought thither, and the crowd rushed upon 
him in a mass, beating Mm, and exclaiming, "Only hang 
him : no pardon !" 

During this scene, Kohl stood, according to his statement, 
perfectly passive, with the long fork above mentioned, at 
about twenty paces from the spot where the murder was 
committed. 

"When the victim, according to the general dejjosition of 
the bystanders, was already lifeless, and the crowd de- 
manded his being hung up, in order that they might see 
him better, Kohl left the place where he had been stand- 
ing, on being called by a workman near him to lend a hand, 
and forced his way up to the barred window, the spot of 
the hanging. 

A workman standing behind here threw them a cord, and 
there was a call for a knife to cut it with. 

Two men, whose faces the accused could not see, then 
fastened the body, which was lifted up by the others, with a 



atjedeh of count latouk. 383 

cord to tlie window-bars, and Kohl helped, seizing the body 
with his iron fork, and lifting it up, in which act the fork, as 
well as the accused's clothes and hat, were soiled with the 
blood flowing from the count's head. 

This hangman's assistant adds, that the count was at that 
xime still alive, for he had looked at him closely, with a view 
to be able to assert the contrary. 

He confessed the enormity of his deed, but said that he 
had done it only to please the people, and not out of personal 
animosity towards the minister. 

Kohl declares, that at the instant when the body fell from 
the window, he went away from the "War Office, and home 
to the Wieden, taking with him the iron fork, which was sub- 
sequently found in his house. 

According to the deposition of one of the witnesses, it is, 
however, highly probable that he, as well as some others of 
the murderers, went still earlier — between five and six 
o'clock — through the Schulenstrasse, past the inn of the 
Golden Duck, where the Central Committee of all the 
democratic clubs held their meetings on the second story, 
going in triumph, speechifying, boasting of their deeds, and 
flourishing their weapons. 

Several other circumstances raise doubts as to the in- 
tegrity of the confession of this accused; for another eye- 
witness of the deed asserts, on oath, that he saw a young 
man, of small stature, high-coloured in the face, during the 
perpetration of the murder, with a fork formed exactly like 
the one belonging to Kohl, and produced to the witness, and 
that this young man gave a thrust at the War Minister. 

Witness said that, from his short-sightedness, he could not 
identify the accused, who was placed before him, to whom 
that personal description corresponded ; but Kohl had, on 
the evening of the murder, boasted to another witness, 



381 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

his companion; that he had struck at the count with the 
fork thus described, which boast he confesses, calling it, 
however, only an empty brag, and denying the blow or 
thrust. 

A third witness observed in the courtyard of the "War 
Office, a man, whom he could not distinguish more closely, 
holding up a bundle of cord on a similar fork, over the 
heads of the people, to the hangman at the window. 

Lastly, another eye-witness states that he saw the body of 
the War Minister, when being hung to the lamp-post in 
the square, lifted up with a similar iron fork by a man who 
could not be recognised in the crowd. 

The reproaches of his mistress, to whom he had confided 
his participation in the crime, were silenced by Kohl with 
the excuse that he had acted only to secure liberty. 

5. Johann Johl, born at Witzelsdorf, in Lower Austria, 
thirty years of age, a Catholic, unmarried ; journeyman 
weaver in a manufactory at Gumpendorf : had been at an 
earlier period of life arrested by the police for stealing 
clothes, but was liberated, from the want of sufficient grounds 
of suspicion. 

His employer gives him a favourable character, and his 
fellow-workmen praise his cheerful temper, but speak of his 
attachment to the anarchist party. 

He himself states that he was a member of the Liberal 
Club, under the presidency of the notorious Chaisees, in the 
Wieden Suburb ; also that he had visited the Society of Ger- 
man Catholics, and likewise the immense assemblage in the 
Odeon, September, 1848; the object of winch was to prepare 
the outbreak of the 6th October, 1848. 

Respecting his share in the murder, Johl made the follow- 
ing confession in the court : — 

On the Gth October, at one o'clock in the afternoon, as he 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 385 

asserts, lie went unarmed and from mere curiosity into the 
city, where the tocsin had just sounded, first to the Stephens- 
platz, when the Civic Guards fired upon guards of the 
suburbs, and then to the University, in order to hear what 
was said there. 

As the tumult in the Aula was too great to hear anything 
distinctly — the whole assembly speaking, one louder than 
another — he followed a number of students, guards, and 
armed workmen to the Stephensplatz, where the pioneers 
fired upon the people, and retired beyond the Graben. 

On this occasion he was a mere spectator, and was slightly 
wounded on the left shin by the rebound of a shot. 

Hearing it said that the military were overpowered, and 
were being disarmed on the Freiung, curiosity seized him to 
go thither ; and thence he proceeded to the War Office, where 
the tumult was the greatest, in order to see what was going 
on there. 

He found the court filled with students, National Guards, 
and workmen, and just as he reached the side staircase, the 
people were bringing out the War Minister, upon whom the 
crowd rushed, in spite of the loud entreaties of two gentle- 
men, conducting the count on each side, not to ill-use him, 
the Diet having taken him under their protection. The 
crowd, notwithstanding, pressed on, with cries of " Kill him ! " 
and beat him with all kinds of weapons j one of the first 
blows with a hammer, inflicted by a sooty-faced smith, 
struck the ministers head. 

Up to that time Johl, as he states, had stood inactive, at 
about eight or ten paces from the crowd ; but when the 
count lay to all appearance lifeless on the ground, and a 
well-dressed man near the accused drew a bundle of cord from 
his pocket, and called out for a knife, Johl states that, sur- 
prised and without reflection, he pulled his knife out of his 

2c 



386 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

pocket, and handed it to the man, who with it cut off a 
piece of the tangled cord, and threw it into the crowd who 
surrounded the prostrate count, exclaiming, " Hang him 
up !" And that the body was then pulled up with that 
cord to the window-grating, and fastened. 

Accused stated that he also saw the body, fallen from the 
window, dragged to the square, hung up to the lamp-post, 
and fired at : he then went to the high bridge, and there 
remained for some time, during the attack on the arsenal, 
out of curiosity. 

According to the depositions on oath of two of his fellow- 
workmen, Johl on the contrary boasted afterwards, in the 
manufactory, of his participation in the deed in handing the 
knife, not only with boldness and self-satisfaction, but he 
even bragged that he had helped to search for the War 
Minister in his dwelling, had burst open several doors with 
his foot ; and in doing so had hurt his knee ; and that he had 
incited the folks, who were busy in the destruction of the 
furniture, rather to go and seek out the count. 

He also states that, during the firing at the dead body 
suspended in the square, he called out to two officers of the 
main guard close by, who were stupified at the scene, " Look 
ye, gentlemen, there hangs a count, and 'tis proper to give 
him a salute of honour." 

Johl confessed that he indulged in these expressions in the 
manufactory; but that in doing so he only repeated what he 
had heard, and held such language, because the men would 
not believe that he had been present at the occurrence. 

The accused admitted having shared in the subsequent 
October revolt ; that he not only helped to defend the 
Mariahilf lines on the 26th and 28th of October, 1848, but 
that on the latter day he voluntarily joined a division of 
workmen proceeding to the Leopoldstadt, and fired several 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUE. 387 

times on the advancing military from a window, at the bar- 
ricades in the Jager Zeil ; and that on the 30th of October 
he again took up arms, on the news of the approach of the 
Hungarians. 

6. Michael Neumayer, another accomplice, a native of 
Loitzendorf, in the kingdom of Bavaria ; has resided since 
December 1st, 1845, in Austria, is twenty-eight years of age, 
a Catholic, married \ settled in Oberdobling, where he tended 
the gardens of several private individuals, and was enrolled 
in the National Guard of the place, with whom he used to 
do duty in Vienna also. 

He was the son of a schoolmaster, attended in his youth 
the Latin classes, and acquired a mental education far sur- 
passing his condition in life. 

The accounts of his previous life in Bavaria afford a clue 
to Keumayer's unbridled passionateness, and in that country, 
in the year 1826, he underwent a preliminary examination in 
the Vienna Criminal Court, on account of a public act of 
violence ; which charge, not coming under the criminal pro- 
ceedings, was referred to the Police Commissariat at Ober- 
dobling, and was there dismissed with a short arrest. 

It came out that Neuniayer had grossly insulted his 
employer, on occasion of a reproof to his mistress ; had 
threatened his life, and two days afterwards had waylaid him 
in the evening in the public way, and pelted his carriage 
with stones from an ambuscade. 

In the beginning of October, 1848, he was suspected of a 
burglary and robbery, but the Criminal Court found the 
jDroofs insufficient to proceed further against him. 

A letter written by Neumayer, which appears in the 
documents, indicates clearly a discontented spirit, in conse- 
quence of his low condition, filled with hate and bitterness 
toward all in high rank. 

2c2 



388 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

His fellow-lodgers unanimously asserted that during the 
last year he had been always excited, stormy, and passionately 
addicted to the tumults existing at that time. 

They describe him as a cunning and malicious man, whose 
looks, as one of the witnesses adds, involuntarily reminds one 
of the nature of the tiger. 

Those about him were surprised how, with a family of six 
children, he could have lived so comfortably the last summer, 
when he seldom got work and generally went sauntering 
about. 

His behaviour during the examinations was remarkable ~; 
he exhibited an imperturbable quietness and coolness, at the 
same time assuming an hypocritical air of humbleness and 
Christian resignation to his fate. 

It deserves especially to be mentioned, that assays by him 
have appeared in the political " Studenten Courier." 

According to the judicial depositions of Neumayer, he was 
in the forenoon of the 6th of October, 1848, working in the 
garden of the Children Hospital, in the Alser Suburb, 
when he heard the alarm beat, and on the news that a tumult 
had arisen on the Tabor, on account of the departure of a 
grenadier battalion, he hastened thither, unarmed, and 
dressed in his light-grey summer coat and the cap of the 
National Guard ; the fighting had however ended, and he 
assisted in removing the dead and wounded. 

Returning to the city, when he reached the Hofplatz, 
seeing the military in conflict with the guards, he joined the 
proletarians in the square, and went with them to the chief 
guard of the War Office. 

In the guard-room he found ten to fifteen grenadiers and 
pioneers, who were at first threatened by the people ; but 
afterwards, when voices were raised for them, and it was said 
that the soldiers were innocent, and the great personages must 



MURDER OF COUNT? LATOUR. 389 

be called to account, they were led off prisoners to the city 
arsenal. 

One of these pioneers, who had applied to the accused for 
protection, gave the latter his sword at his request, which 
Neumayer kept in his hand in the subsequent occurrences. 

When the gate of the War Office was opened, upon the 
clamour of the increasing multitude, the accused went with the 
crowd to the first story, where a door was pointed out which 
it was said Count Latour had entered. 

Affcer repeated knocking at the closed entrance, and the 
threat of bursting open the door, a gentleman came out (who 
the accused afterwards heard was General Yon Frank), who, 
in reply to the inquiry where the War Minister was, declared 
he did not know ; whereupon, on the demand of the people, 
he was led off prisoner to the city arsenal, whither 
Neumayer conducted him. 

The accused, however, soon returned to the War Office, just 
as the deputy Borrosch rode off from thence. 

At this time, and whilst already several cries were heard 
demanding Latour s death, witness states that Kausch, who 
was standing on the lower steps of the back main staircase, 
called on the concourse of people to follow him; whereupon 
the accused, as he says, followed Rausch to the second story, 
only for the protection of the count, when the breaking in 
the gates and the devastation of the apartments began. 

Neumayer proceeded to describe the occurrences, above 
related, on the staircase of the third story after the count's 
resignation was brought thither by Smolka, and remarks, 
that he was one of the twenty guards who undertook, with 
a solemn oath, the protection of the War Minister, under the 
leadership of Rausch. 

He went with this young student and the three deputies 
to the hiding-place of the count, and dwells particularly 



390 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

upon the circumstance that, when Smolka represented to the 
"War Minister the necessity of his showing himself to the 
people, and letting himself be conducted by the guard of 
protection to the Diet, he (Neumayer) tapped the deputy 
Sierakowsky on the shoulder, and drew his attention to the 
danger of leading the count down to the infuriated mob, 
advising that the War Minister should rather be under 
guard in the chamber upstairs. 

On the other hand, the depositions of the deputies and of 
Major Baron Boxberg, show that the proposal to guard the 
count upstairs had been made by themselves, and that the 
War Minister was willing to adopt this course, only ex- 
pressing his wish to be taken to the majors apartment. 

Respecting the subsequent events, Neumayer says as 
follows : — 

Soon afterwards, when he stationed himself with the young 
student before the passage door which the count had 
entered, Bausch approached from the staircase with his 
guard of protection, in which several meddling persons had 
mingled, and in reply to the question " Where is he ? " the 
young student pointed to the door, which Bausch opened, 
and out of which the count stepped, with the expression 
before stated. 

Accused also states, that with the wish of saving the War 
Minister, he now opposed the crowd, who wanted to take 
him downstairs, representing that the count should remain 
upstairs, as the guard of protection had pledged their word 
of honour for his safety. 

He was however clamoured down by the rest, and the 
count was led downstairs, whereupon the accused, when after- 
wards one of the two men who were at the count's side was 
pushed away, took his place ; that he reproached the fellow 
for his roughness in forcing the War Minister's hat on to his 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 391 

face, and that the man in return threatened him with his 
sword. 

In the courtyard the count, with his protectors, was 
pressed against the window-wall, and Neumayer states that 
he kept close to the count's right side, whilst another big- 
man was on his left. 

Thereupon, some of the people standing round them, espe- 
cially two unarmed gentlemen, parried with their arms the 
blows aimed at the count on all sides with muskets and 
pikes i but the accused did not observe any sabre among 
these weapons. A young, shortset workman, behind the 
big man on the count's left side, pressed forward, and 
struck the minister a blow on the head with a hammer 
from behind, when the count staggered, but soon recovered 
himself. 

After this blow on the hat of the count, the blood forced 
its way through the head-covering, and accused was sprinkled 
with it. 

Indignant at the base conduct of the fellow with the 
hammer, he threatened him with his pioneer's sabre, but 
presently he observed one of those behind thrusting a 
pointed iron pole between the people in front, and inflicting 
a, stab in the count's belly ; whereupon the latter sank to the 
ground, and accused, considering any further effort to protect 
him fruitless, went across the Hofplatz to the Civic Arsenal 
and thence straight to Dobling. 

Some days afterwards he took his pioneer's sabre to the 
Imperial Arsenal, wishing to exchange it for a trailing 
sword. 

In contradiction, however, to this statement, it was asserted 
on oath by several eye-witnesses, that the first wound inflicted 
on the War Minister when he entered the court, was followed 
by a stroke with a pioneer's sabre on the head. 



392 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

Aide-de-camp Captain Leopold Count Gondrecourt, who 
pushed the War Minister against the wall for his safer pro- 
tection, placed himself before him, and parried with his hand 
several thrusts and blows aimed at the latter, especially 
affirms, that Count Latour was at that time without any 
head-covering, and that he, as long as witness stood before 
him, received only a sabre-cut on his forehead, from which 
Captain Gondrecourt was covered with blood. 

One of the invalids belonging to the Horse-guard, saw 
from the passage-window the War Minister, whose hat had 
been torn off, receive the first wound from a blow on the 
head, struck by a man whom witness could not distinguish, 
at the window-wall, with a yellow-handled sabre. 

The third witness, a magistrate's officer, who was standing 
at twenty paces from the War Minister when he entered the 
courtyard, deposes, that the first stroke was inflicted by a 
pioneer's sabre, which was instantly followed by a number of 
blows and thrusts with all kinds of weapons, among which 
was a hammer. 

Witness was too much stunned at the scene, to have im- 
pressed on his recollection the appearance of the man with 
the pioneer's sabre. 

Another witness, formerly an officer in the Imperial ser- 
vice, who came accidentally and unarmed to the scene of the 
murder, found the War Minister, without his hat, at the 
window- wall, just when the latter entered the courtyard, and 
placed himself, in order to protect him, at his right side, 
whilst on the count's left was a large, elegantly- dressed man, 
and round about several other unarmed gentlemen, who were 
actively engaged in trying to save him; but who all were, 
one by one, forced away. 

One man, who, according to another statement, belonged 
to the Guards of the Suburb seized the count by the head, and 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 393 

pulled him with such violence that the unhappy man stag- 
gered and held fast by the witness's hand. 

The latter saw three blows hit the count, nearly at the 
same time, — one with a pioneer's sabre, the second with an 
iron pole, both on the head, and the third with a hammer, 
or, as he believes, with a hoe. 

Witness describes the man who inflicted the sabre-cut, 
and who stood opposite the War Minister, as perfectly cor- 
responding to the accused in age, stature, appearance, and 
dress. 

According to Neumayer's personal representation, he con- 
firmed this likeness, without being able — as is conceivable — 
to speak with perfect certainty. 

Two other witnesses, both peaceable and trustworthy work- 
men, were standing at eight to ten paces from the War 
Minister, and agree in asserting that a man, standing close 
before him, and whose description perfectly answers to 
accused, inflicted the first blow on the count's head with a 
pioneer's sabre, exclaiming, "Down with the dog !" (Nichts, 
nieder mit dem Hund !) and that thereupon the count, in 
order to protect himself, seized his head with both his hands. 

Both witnesses remarked the shirt sticking out on the 
arm which was raised to deal this stroke, and upon being 
confronted with [Nfeumayer, they confirmed his striking 
resemblance to the man, but were not able to prove his 
identity with certainty, as they had been standing behind 
the man during the perpetration of the act. 

The accomplice Wilhelm recognised in the person of 
Neumayer the same man with perfect certainty, who, going 
upon the staircase directly behind the War Minister, insulted 
him in the most furious manner, threatened his life, and 
kept continually flourishing his pioneer-sabre over his head, 
as if he would every instant deal a blow with it. 



394 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

Brambosch after his condemnation also states with cer- 
tainty, upon Neumayer being placed before him, that it was 
he who, after helping to conduct the "War Minister down from 
the fourth story, placed himself before him in the courtyard, 
and raised his arm as if to strike a blow at the count with 
his pioneer-sabre. 

Brambosch could not observe, in the tumult that prevailed, 
whether the sabre-stroke really hit the count ; but says that 
it is false that Neumayer tried to strike the man with the 
hammer, as he just then turned away from the latter and 
toward the count. 

The wife of a civil officer, who was produced as a witness, 
recognised in the accused — not indeed with certainty, but 
with probability — the same man who, during the procession 
with Jurkovich in the Aula, flourishing a pioneer-sabre, had 
exclaimed " This I have won myself ! " and according to the 
testimony of a woman who lived in the same house as Neu- 
mayer at Oberdobling, he the same evening exhibited at 
home the pioneer-sabre he had brought in a triumphant 
manner, and repeating the same words. 

Several other persons living in the same house, testified 
that accused returned so sprinkled with blood, that he had 
instantly to change his clothes ; that he related the War 
Minister's fate with a joyous excitement, adding, that the 
dog was rightly treated ; boasted of his share in the murder ; 
that he had ironically mocked at the words of the count, 
which he repeated to them, "My dear children f and when 
reproached by a witness, he had answered, " If you had seen 
the bloodshed before on the Tabor, you would, like me, have 
had no pity for him." 

Lastly, it was affirmed by these witnesses, that ISTeumayer 
afterwards, especially since the entrance of the Imperial 
troops, had exerted himself zealously to spread the belief 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUH. 395 

that at Latour's murder lie had been only anxious for his 
protection ; and one of the witnesses mentions a man coming 
once previously to accused's house, looking like a student, 
who some days after the murder had asked for him, saying, 
a We want him, he must come ! " 

To all these statements accused gave the most obstinate 
denial, remarking, that he saw he was lost by so many ap- 
pearances of proof against him, but it was all an error, and 
that an accidental likeness with one of the agents in the 
murder threatened his destruction ! 

7. Joseph Pawihausky, another of the agents, was born at 
Vienna in Austria, is thirty-five years old, a Catholic, unmar- 
ried; a journeyman, and seller of sand. He has been fourteen 
times before punished judicially, mostly for robbery and ex- 
cesses ; is known as excessively brutal and given to drink. 

According to his confession, he went on the day of the 
murder, at ten o'clock in the forenoon, unarmed and without 
a coat, into a spirit-shop in the city, where he got intoxicated, 
fell asleep, and did not go to the Graben till the afternoon. 

He states that he w r as here just putting aside the dead 
body of a soldier who had been shot, when suddenly a shot 
was fired from a window in the neighbourhood, whereupon 
about twenty-five guards and workmen ran together, and 
rushed with him into the apartments of the first story of the 
house, from which they thought the shot had been fired. 

In the presence of an affrighted man-servant they ransacked 
all the chests and cupboards, showed the greatest rage against 
the unknown person who had fired the shot ; and the accused, 
who, instead of a weapon, says that he carried in his hands a 
large stone, does not deny that he uttered threats of killing. 

He went thence to the Hofplatz, where the body of the 
"War Minister was just being dragged by a crowd of men to 
the lamp-post. 



396 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

Hearing the people cry " He must be hanged ! " and being 
worked up to a state of fury by the occurrence with the 
servant, the accused was led to consent to hang up the body. 

He states that he, in the first place, mounted on a stone 
at the foot of the lamp-post ; but not being able to reach 
the arm of the post, nor fasten the corpse to it by the cord 
fastened round the neck, although it was lifted up by others, 
the body fell from him sideways. 

A ladder was then brought, which the accused mounted ; and 
he then tied fast to the arm of the lamp-post with a white 
leathern strap, which some one shortly before had slung 
round the neck of the count, the lifeless body of the count, 
whose head, hanging down on one side, had been beaten in, 
and bled copiously from gaping wounds. 

Thereupon Pawikausky, according to his own statement, 
turned the suspended body round, the face being towards 
the lamp-post, in order that every one might see it ; he then 
descended the ladder, and went to the Imperial Arsenal, to 
see how the affair would end, from whence, without taking 
part in the attack, he returned, not till the morning, to the 
spirit-shop. 

The statements of the eye-witnesses, several of whom 
recognised Pawikausky with certainty as the hangman, or, to 
use their own expression, as the Matador, describe his fright- 
ful activity at first on the stone, and afterwards on the 
ladder, and give brutal details. 

The accused states that he pulled off his jacket to hang the 
body, stripped up his shirt-sleeves, ill-treated the body when 
standing on the stone with kicks and blows, because it 
slipped from his hands, and afterwards on the ladder em- 
braced it with his bloody hands, insultingly and with coarse 
expressions, pulled it about by the hair, and spit in the face, 
till a shudder ran through the witnesses. 



MURDER OF COUNT LATQUR. 397 

At the conclusion he made a speech, amid shouts of 
applause from the spectators, like Wangler, a repetition of 
which human feeling forbids. 

The deposition of an eye-witness belonging to the educated 
classes is important, and entitled to full credit : he had by- 
chance made his way through the crowd among the mur- 
derers in the courtyard of the "War Office, where he stood 
only a few paces distant from the barred window. He 
recognised with certainty Pawikausky, on being confronted 
with him, as the same man who, at the first strangu- 
lation, when the count was still alive, drew up the body, 
and tied it with the cord to the window-bars. 

"Witness saw the same man, Pawikausky, soon afterwards 
in the square, acting as hangman at the lamp-post. 

Another equally credible witness confirms the identity of 
the hangman in both cases with the person of Pawikausky, 
but merely conjecturally, without being able to speak with 
certainty. 

A third witness thinks, also with probability only, that 
he observed Pawikausky among the band of murderers in 
the courtyard of the building. 

From the deposition of the servant in the dwelling in the 
Seitzergasse, into which Pawikausky forced his way to seek 
for the man who fired the shot, it appears that the crowd 
who rushed in with him was headed by Padovany (after- 
wards convicted as an insurgent), who exhibited great haste, 
and went away exclaiming, " We have still more to do ! " 
- Y/hereupon witness saw the whole rabble of people hasten to 
the War Office. 

He afterwards related to the same servant, who was one 
of Pawikausky's customers for sand, that he had shot several 
soldiers, at the attack on the arsenal, from the roof of an 
adjoining house ; and Yvhen witness reproached him after 



398 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

the occupation of the city with the occurrences of the 6th 
of October, accused excused himself by saying, that they, 
the workmen, had been paid in October by Jews, and were 
employed where they were wanted. 

The accused said, that matters would soon begin again, but 
that witness might be quiet ; nothing more would happen to 
him, for he (Pawikausky) was now well-disposed, and before, 
likewise, he had only fought for liberty. 

In a similar manner he had expressed himself also against 
another of his customers, in March, 1849, remarking, that 
they should again assemble, and fall upon " the big-heads" 
with scythes : so saying, the accused pointed to the head, 
with a motion of his hand, accompanied by a hissing sound. 

Several other eye-witnesses stated, that it was generally 
known in the "Wieden Suburb, where Pawikausky dwelt, 
that on the 6th of October he sold in the city several pieces 
of cloth, part of the dress of Count Latour, at ten to thirty 
kreutzers apiece ; and his friend and comrade, who was also 
examined respecting his participation in this crime, asserts, 
that Pawikausky confided to him that he had hung up the 
body of the count, after having first dragged it out from 
the building. 

Afterwards, however, the accused, as his friend testifies, could 
not bear any talk about the murder of the War Minister ; 
for it seemed to make him anxious and uneasy, and he used, 
whenever the conversation fell upon this subject, to go away; 
indeed, he had latterly declared that his life was a burden to 
him, and that he must give himself up to the authorities, as 
so many innocent persons were under arrest on his account. 
All participation exceeding the limits of his confession, 
especially his presence and co-operation in the murder in 
the War Office, at the first strangulation as well as at the 
attack on the arsenal, was obstinately denied by the 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 399 

accused ; and it only remains to be mentioned, that in 
consequence of a wound at the fight on the lines, October 
28th, 1848, he was laid up in the hospital for thirteen weeks. 

8. Johann Fischer, was born at St. Georgen, in the county 
of Presburg, in Hungary; is thirty-eight years of age, a 
Catholic, and unmarried ; he is a joiner in a manufactory 
in the neighbourhood of the Gloggnitz station, the father 
of -two illegitimate children : has never before been under 
judicial examination, was an industrious workman, but 
passionate, irritable, very resolute, proud, seldom sober, 
and feared by every one in his own house for his brutality. 

A prominent feature in his character is his especial pre- 
dilection for riots, to which he used always to run armed, 
and with a kind of fanatical inspiration. 

According to his statement, which was rendered suspicious 
by his reserve at first, and by his numerous contradictions, he 
left his dwelling on the day of the murder early in the after- 
noon, and went first to a neighbouring spirit-shop, afterwards, 
after two o'clock, unarmed into the city, to the Aula, where 
he remained inactive for half an hour, and then went to the 
Seitzergasse. 

Here he states that he took the iron pike of a workman, 
who went away leaving the weapon behind him, and pro- 
ceeded with it to the courtyard of the War Office, where he 
remained about ten minutes ; that just then a gentleman, who 
was surrounded by a crowd of workmen and guards exclaim- 
ing that " Latour must come out, for he was there ! " assured 
the multitude that the count was no longer in the house. 

On being called upon by a National Guard to assist in 
removing the wounded from the guard-house in the square, 
the accused says, that he went to the guard-house, and from 
thence, as the wounded were already removed, to the Imperial 
Arsenal, it being said that the people were going to storm it. 



400 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

Having, however, on his way thither turned back from 
fear, he remained on the Freiung \ but an hour afterwards, 
hearing the cry suddenly raised that Latour was dead, he 
ran to the courtyard, where he saw the body suspended to 
the lamp-post, and covered it with a linen cloth. 

The people, on hearing a discharge of musketry, thinking 
that the military were firing, ran off in different directions, 
and he hastened back to the Freiung, where a man was 
cutting to pieces and distributing a sword-belt, declaring it 
to have been Latour's ; the accused also received a piece, and 
went with an acquaintance whom he met on the bastion to 
the arsenal. 

There, without taking part in the attack, he remained 
till nine o'clock, and then went to a wine-cellar in the 
Graben, and at half-past ten o'clock returned home. 

On the other hand, two witnesses recognised the accused as 
the same man who, on the evening of the murder, exhibited 
in the above-mentioned wine-cellar a pointed, pike-shaped, 
long, iron pole, bent round at the handle, with the boast, 
that he had killed Count Latour with it, at the same time 
boldly stating his name, condition, and abode ; and on the 
remark of one of the witnesses, that he would receive a 
reward at the Aula for Ins deed, he answered, that he knew 
the way thither. 

A piece of a sword-belt was also exhibited by Fischer on 
this occasion, with the remark, that it had belonged to 
Latour, and he had sold other gold tassels belonging to it 
for twenty kreutzers each. 

In a like manner the accused boasted on the bastion to his 
acquaintances, as likewise in the evening twilight, on his 
return home soon afterwards, to the woman who lived in the 
same house, and in both places he expressly mentioned his 
pike, with which he had stabbed the "War Minister, adding, 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 401 

to the latter female witness, that he had also assisted at the 
hanging, and that he should cut off the end of his pike, to 
keep it as a memorial for his son. 

One of the Deutschmeister Infantry Grenadiers, who, at 
the time of the murder, was standing in the courtyard of 
the War Office, and who endeavoured to rush to the aid of 
the War Minister, but was seized by a National Guard and 
driven back into the courtyard, with the words, that he had 
nothing to do there, describes precisely, in his examination 
before the arrest of the accused, an artisan, exactly corre- 
sponding to Fischer's person, who, soon after the attack on the 
count, stepped out of the knot of murderers, and standing 
close by the witness, wiped with a handkerchief a bloody 
pointed iron weapon, which seemed to the grenadier to be a 
bayonet, exclaiming, " The only wish of my life, to have his 
blood, is satisfied : — the villain betrayed my country ! " 

This witness accidentally met Fischer in the antechamber 
of the court, and hardly had he caught sight of him, when 
he begged to be examined, and asserted with certainty that 
Fischer was the workman described by him. 

The above-mentioned accomplice, Brambosch, saw, as soon 
as he reached the War Office, Fischer standing in the court- 
yard with an iron pike ; and when Brambosch afterwards 
turned round to go away, after the blows inflicted with the 
butt -end of the musket on the War Minister, he observed 
the accused close in front of liim, again in the midst of the 
crowd of murderers, armed with a weapon, which he this time 
could not exactly distinguish, on account of the prevailing 
tumult, whilst he confirmed his personal identity with cer- 
tainty. 

Another witness of the deed recognised, without hesitation, 
Fischer as — with a great degree of probability — one of those 
he had seen among the crowd of murderers in the courtyard, 

2d 



402 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

actively engaged in the deed ; and a person sentenced foi 
insurrection by the Criminal Court considered the accused, 
although not with perfect certainty, to be the same work- 
man who, with three other proletarians, ill-treated with 
his iron pike a gentleman who was indignant at the strangu- 
lation on the lamp-post, and who barely saved himself by 
flight to the neighbouring guard-house, where he was obliged 
to have surgical assistance. 

Lastly, several of Fischer's fellow-lodgers confirmed his 
eager participation in the fight with the imperial troops 
during the last days of October, and especially the circum- 
stance that he, on the 30th of October, when the imperial 
outposts were already in his suburb, came home in haste, 
fetched his musket, and, like a madman, rushed out, saying 
that he must shoot the military sentinel. In his garret, 
and under the floor of his chamber, six pistols were found 
concealed, also a considerable number of cartridges, and a 
piece of the above-mentioned sword-belt, the possession of 
which he admitted. 

The accused did not confess his thrice boasting of his par- 
ticipation in the murder until after many denials, with the 
remark, that he had only bragged of it, without having 
been on the spot of the murder. 

He had, however, been told in the street by a woman, 
that the murderers of Count Latour would be well rewarded 
at the Aula, and he was forced to admit that he did really 
cut off the end of his iron pike, on the 7th of October, and 
kept it as a memorial, but only that he might be able to say 
years afterwards what had once taken place in Vienna. 

In the last days of October he had marched out only a 
few times with the National Guards of his district to the 
line, and on the 30th of October he had taken his musket out 
with him, only to deliver it up, but not to shoot the sentinel. 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 403 

9. Joseph Major, a native of Rosenau, in the Gomor 
county in Hungary, fifty-six years of age, of the Evangelical 
religion, unmarried ; formerly an apothecary, recently secre- 
tary of a landed proprietor in Hungary. Since 1841 he 
has resided at Yienna, in the Wieden Suburb, with an 
acquaintance, who was a money-broker, without property or 
any fixed income : he is described as cautious in his state- 
ments, but easily excited and irritable, a Radical, cheerful 
and kind in his manner, and as having been beloved by 
the "Wieden Guards, whose standard-bearer he was. 

Kohl described and denounced this man as one of the 
inciters of the people in the events of the 6th of October in 
the city ; stating that, at the time when the multitude in 
the Hofplatz demanded with outcries the death of the War 
Minister, he had placed himself in front of the opened door of 
the War Office, and, flourishing his sabre, had instigated the 
people to enter, calling on them to take courage, to follow 
him, and not to be frightened at anything. 

Kohl heard from the bystanders, that the same guardsman 
had not only shortly before fought very bravely himself on 
the Graben, but had also fired upon the people in the 
conflict with the military. 

In the War Office, Kohl did not see the accused again until 
the moment when the count's body fell from the window- 
grating. 

Major was at that time standing hardly five paces off, 
and spoke with several other guardsmen, without Kohl's 
being able to overhear their conversation. 

Major himself made the following statements : — 

On the day of the murder he went to the city at two 
o'clock in the afternoon with his musket, but without a sabre, 
to seek the first company of the National Guards of his district, 
and was drawn into the fight with the pioneers on the Graben. 

2d2 



404 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

He states that he there fired several times upon the 
imperial troops, and incited the people to fight, using ex- 
clamations which he must confess with repentance. 

He also admits that he encouraged the multitude in front 
of the gate of the War Office to advance and enter the 
building, at a time, indeed, when the death of the War 
Minister was loudly demanded. 

In the courtyard, when the proletarians and Jews, dressed 
like students, were crying out that the count must die, and 
be hanged, he at first demanded for him a court-martial ; but 
on being abused as a black-yellow dog for this, he was seized 
with the general rage, and joined with the rest in the cry, 
that Latour must be hung, but without having any kind of 
personal enmity against the War Minister. 

He states that the students, by representing to them that 
Count Latour wanted to rob them of their liberties, and 
they must defend these, formally instigated them against 
him, and ordered them to capture the War Office. 

Using a significant simile, Major here said, " The students 
were the drivers, but they [the people] were the oxen !" 

On the departure of the deputy Borrosch from the War 
Office, the accused says that he accompanied him through 
different streets to the Stephensplatz, after which he drank 
a glass of wine in a public-house close by, and then returned 
to the War Office, where he spoke with some guards at the 
time when the body of the count fell from the window-bars. 

He does not exactly remember what he said or did in the 
courtyard on this occasion, for he was probably intoxicated. 

If he knew the charges brought against him, in the court, 
he would confess them ; but he admits with repentance, that 
when the body fell from the window-bars, he insulted the 
count, and cried out with the rest, that Latour must be 
hung. 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 405 

After having seen the body dragged to the square and 
suspended to the lamp-post, he went to the Civic Arsenal, 
and from thence, toward nine o'clock, home. 

It must be observed, that Major did not confess his second 
presence in the "War Office at the time of the first strangula- 
tion until after the deposition of Kohl ; but in subsequent 
examinations he again retracted his statement, saving that 
he went from the public-house straight to the City Arsenal, 
and from thence home, without again entering the War 
Office ; and, not having yet stood before the court, he, from 
fear, stated falsely that he had been in the building during 
the strangulation. 

The partial retractation of the accused's confession is ex- 
plained by the circumstance, that he succeeded, whilst under 
arrest, in keeping up an intercourse with a friend, who was 
by no means free from suspicion ; and it must be mentioned, 
that several facts, confirmed by witnesses, tend to indicate 
that Major was a paid agent of the Hungarian anarchist party, 
for furthering the occurrences of the 6th of October ; whose 
intrigues and share in the murder of the War Minister 
will be seen more closely hereafter. The facts here alluded 
to are, especially, the frequent intercourse of Major with 
Hungarian advocates and compromised landowners in Hun- 
gary; his continued and active connection with that country 
in the summer of 1848, whither he went on a furlough 
granted him by his captain ; lastly, the circumstance, which 
struck one of the witnesses so forcibly, that Major, who 
made no secret of his poverty, suddenly, in August or 
September, 1848, was plentifully supplied with money, and 
paid drinking debts. 

10. Micliael Wilhehn is a native of Vienna, in Austria, twenty- 
two years of age, a Catholic ; unmarried, a journeyman glove- 
maker: has never before been punished; has the character of 



406 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

an extreme Radical, and on the court-martial examination of 
his brother, Yincenz Wilhelm, for having concealed arms 
during the state of siege under peculiarly incriminating 
circumstances, he was arrested as compromised in that 
matter, whence arose his participation in this murder. 

As already related by the accomplice Brambosch, Wilhelm, 
together with him, both belonging to the same company of 
National Guards, shortly before the murder, forced their way 
into the War Office, at the instigation of the public speaker 
in the Bazaar Court ; and the deposition of Wilhelm agrees 
perfectly with that of Brambosch, up to the time when the 
latter, with Rausch, and the two other guards, returned from 
the fruitless search for the War Minister in the passages of 
the fourth story, to the impatient crowd on the staircase. 

It is well known that Brambosch accused Wilhelm of 
being, on that occasion, one of the most violent instigators 
against the count ; that he demanded aloud his death ; and, 
in his rage, even presented his bayonet at Brambosch's breast, 
accusing him of concealing Latour ; from which circumstance 
Brambosch also points him out as the sole author of his 
misfortune, as he was first thrown by him into that state of 
unbridled rage against the count, which led to his participa- 
tion in the murder. 

Brambosch repeated this himself to Wilhelm, before the 
court, in a distinct manner, without any passion; nay, after 
being told the fate that awaited him, in the language of 
reconciliation. 

It was first, on being thus confronted, that Wilhelm con- 
fessed all the circumstances connected with his instigating 
the people, and sought an excuse in the example of the rest, 
and the general enmity against the War Minister, asserting 
that he had not thought it would come to a real murder. 

With regard to his later conduct, Wilhelm says, that 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 407 

when the count was led downstairs into the courtyard, he 
went behind him ; hut that just as the attack on the 
minister began, he returned to the bastion, without taking 
part in it. 

He declares it to be untrue, that he took part in the 
subsequent attack on the imperial arsenal, or sought to 
persuade Brambosch to this. 

11. Wilhelm Rausch, the last of the convicted men, was born 
at Sonneberg, in the Leitmeritz Circle, in Bohemia ; is twenty- 
four years of age, a Catholic, unmarried ; a student in tech- 
nology, in his third annual course, and lieutenant in the 
Academic Legion, hitherto irreproachable in his conduct, and 
having the character of a quiet, industrious, well-conducted, 
and domestic young man ; who, although carried away by 
the general enthusiasm for the March events, nevertheless 
hated the excesses of revolution. 

Without assistance from home, he supported himself by 
private teaching and as a copyist ; and in the summer, 1848, 
received also, upon his petition, an aid of fifty florins from 
his majesty the Emperor Ferdinand. 

On the examination, he manifested an easily-susceptible 
spirit for every impression, without passing the limits of 
modesty. 

The student, by whose share in the occurrences in the 
War Office their fatal termination was not a little furthered, 
states as follows : — 

He had come on the morning of that day to the Poly- 
technic Institute, where his fellow-students disclosed to him 
that the plan was arranged not to allow the German troops 
to depart ; that the day before, a fraternization had taken 
place between the Grenadiers and the National Guards in 
different public-houses, at which the former had given the 
promise not to depart, if they were supported by the Guards. 



408 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

Hereupon the accused, after putting on his uniform, re- 
paired to the University, where, towards eleven o'clock in the 
forenoon, a crowd of students, guards, and workmen called 
on him to be their leader, and under his command marched 
towards Leopoldstadt ; but on their way thither, this troop, 
at the order of the commander of the Academic Legion, 
Aigner, who came riding, and met them at the city gate, 
turned round, and went back to the Aula. 

Rausch here joined another division of students, who, 
under the command of the well-known Wutschel (still a 
fugitive), were going to the railway-station in the Prater, 
where he states that he remained for three-quarters of an 
hour inactive, out of mere curiosity ; but that, on a volley 
fired by the military upon the students, he took to flight, 
and returned to the city. 

Without again returning to the Aula, he says that he 
wandered about for some time in the streets ; and at about 
half-past two o'clock went to the Hof, where the pioneers 
were standing, 

In answer to a question here put to a general, whether 
there were no means of putting a stop to hostilities, the 
latter advised him to go to the War Minister ; he thereupon 
sought the latter, and received from him a promise of the 
cessation of hostilities, on condition that he should first 
pacify the people, with whom the firing had commenced. 

In this, however, he did not succeed, in spite of his re- 
presentations to the multitude in the square ; for the people 
cried out in great bitterness, that the War Minister must be 
called to account for the blood that had been shed; and the 
accused also heard himself reproached with being in league 
with Latour. 

He confesses it was true, that on his return to the War 
Office on occasion of the issuing the written ministerial 



MURDER OP COUNT LATOUR. 409 

order for the cessation of hostilities, being excited by hearing 
the firing of cannon in the square, and his ill reception by 
the people, he had behaved passionately, and called out to the 
minister in a tone of reproach, " This is the consequence of 
your orders, — I cannot answer for any further excesses ! " 
He also admits that one of the bystanders advised him to 
moderate himself; but he denies having seized the War 
Minister by the breast, as one of the witnesses had deposed, 
and at the utmost admits it as possible that he might have 
involuntarily seized him by the button or by his coat, a 
common habit he had when excited. 

"With regard to the circumstance, confirmed by two wit- 
nesses, that he demanded at that time the opening of the 
locked gates, endeavouring to silence the anxiety expressed 
by the War Minister against this step by pledging his word 
of honour to prevent the forcible entrance of the people, if 
the gate was only opened, — Rausch remarks evasively, that 
he recollects there was some question about the opening of 
the gates, but he does not know exactly whether he himself 
spoke of this, and is much more of the opinion that another 
of the bystanders made that demand. 

After describing his attempt at the window of the 
chancery-chamber on the first story, to pacify the people 
by exhibiting the placard, he further states, that, after a 
second vain attempt to appease the storm, the people being 
already infuriated to madness, he returned to the dwelling of 
the War Minister, accompanied by a National Guard, who 
joined him in the square, in order to represent to the count 
the extreme danger he was in, and to propose some means 
of conciliation ; such as the resignation of his office. 

On this occasion the aide-de-camp met him in the dwelling- 
house, and remarked, how frightful it would be if Count 
Latour were to be given up to the justice of the populace, 



410 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

and lie urged Rausch to co-operate with Mm in attempting 
to save the count, which accused was instantly ready to do. 

Thereupon they came to the agreement, respecting which 
the assertion of the accused and the statement of the aide- 
de-camp differ — that the War Minister was to give in his 
resignation, which Niewiadomsky was to take in writing to 
the latter. 

Rausch remarks, that the confidence which the aide-de- 
camp showed him on this occasion, had been a spur to him 
to throw himself into danger in order to save the minister. 

A further inducement to him to take part in the occur- 
rences, he asserts, was the report that a student had dragged 
a general out of the water on the Tabor ; Rausch says he 
wished to do a similar act for the War Minister. 

On the announcement of the measure agreed upon below 
in the courtyard, where he was declared a traitor, and the 
written paper a mere rag, and where he and the aide-de-camp 
got into the thickest crowd, Rausch heard the first death- 
cries against Latour. 

At first he gave evasive answers, and professed ignorance ; 
but the multitude growing more and more stormy, and 
reproaching him with knowing the hiding-place of the 
count, as he had been previously in intercourse with him — 
and when the people even threatened to kill him, he called 
out, thinking that the War Minister must have escaped in 
the mean time, Gount Latour was upstairs, and they ought 
themselves to go up and satisfy themselves ! 

On the contrary, it is to be remarked, that not only 
Neumayer, but also another man, who had undergone a 
previous examination on suspicion of participation in the 
guilt, corroborated the fact of Rausch having called on the 
people on the staircase to follow him, as Latour was above- 
stairs, asserting, that they had not observed that Rausch 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 411 

was at that time in any position of compulsion or 
anxiety. 

Both witnesses recognise him as the same student, and 
they assert that they followed him only on his summons; 
nay, one of them declares, that Rausch was one of those 
students who, in the War Minister's study, read aloud the 
letters seized there to the people, exclaiming, " See here 
Latour's knavery ! " It is further deposed by many witnesses, 
that just at the time when Rausch called on the people to 
follow him, there was a momentary quiet in the "War Office. 

Rausch, however, in his defence continues, that he, in 
company with guards and workmen, went into the second 
story ; that there was a general cry that he must bring out 
the count to them ; and that, seeing himself in the power of 
the people, fearing the worst for Latour, and thinking it 
better for the latter to be taken prisoner, than to fall into 
the hands of the people, he at last gave the promise to help 
them to seek the count. 

They thus came into the count's antechamber, where they 
found the aide-de-camp, who, on being asked for Latour, 
led them to the church, and told them that the count had 
escaped through it. 

The accused attempted to give a positive denial to the 
charge, that he had been among the other students on the 
reading of the letters in the count's study. 

It appears from the statements of Captain Niewiadomsky, 
that *Rausch, on occasion of their last meeting, had, calling 
him by his name, begged him to publish the whole proceed- 
ings in a newspaper, as he feared to be killed by the people 
as a traitor. 

From the church, the accused says that he went to the 
staircase in the third story, just when the people, after the 
rejection of the minister's resignation, were some of them 



412 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

demanding his imprisonment, and others his death ; and 
adds, that he himself was the leader of those twenty guards 
who took the solemn oath to defend the count. 

With regard to the subsequent search for the minister in 
the passages of the fourth story, with Brambosch and the 
two other guards, — on which Major Baron Boxberg mentions 
the significant circumstance, that Rausch met him, at the head 
of three guards, with a drawn sword, and asked him where 
the minister Bach was ; and that, on his answering that he 
did not know (for which Rausch required the major's word 
of honour), Rausch remarks, that he was then really seeking 
Fischhof in the passages, that the latter might lead him to 
the count. 

He adds, that he has some indistinct recollection that a 
person met him, who stated himself to be an officer, and 
that they had some talk about a word of honour. 

What he asked that gentleman he does not know, and 
believes that he inquired rather for Latour than for the 
minister Bach ; but he would not deny the possibility, from 
his excessive confusion at the time, of his having asked for 
Bach. 

Accused is perfectly ignorant of their having on this 
occasion, as an invalid asserted, broken into and searched a 
chancery-chamber; on the contrary, it is true that, on 
their return to the staircase, they were received with 
reproaches. 

When, lastly, Fischhof came with the news that Latour 
had been found, accused says that he followed him with the 
guard of protection across the passage to a door, before 
which they saw the War Minister standing, whereupon they 
conducted him downstairs. 

Rausch states that he at the same time vainly attempted 
to push the War Minister sideways into a chamber. 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 413 

Whilst they were going downstairs, a fresh mass of people 
met them, uttering threats of hanging the count ; and the 
accused, having placed himself opposite to these people, and 
spoken strongly for the protection of the minister, he says 
that they forced him away from the staircase, dragged him 
into the passage on the second story, called him a black- 
yellow traitor, seized on his sash, and made signs of hanging 
him with it ; from which danger he was freed by the arrival 
of the National Guard Ernst Koch, — a circumstance which 
the latter confirms. 

Thereupon, the accused says that he went, accompanied 
by Koch, to the civic arsenal, where he had fomentations, 
being very unwell, from the effects of deadly anxiety and 
fear. 

According to the depositions of several other eye-wit- 
nesses, Rausch rushed, disordered in mind and in the highest 
excitement, into the adjacent room in the arsenal, exclaim- 
ing, " May God not punish me — he is now hanging, and I 
am guilty of it ! " 

He related, that, at the moment when the people wanted 
to press into the War Office, to murder Latour, he concluded 
the agreement with the leaders of the crowd, in order to 
save the minister, to enter with them, and seek the latter, 
on condition that his life was spared. 

At this statement Rausch beat his hand on his brow, and 
exclaimed, " Oh, that I had not told the people that the 
count was in the house ! " He behaved like one in despair, 
and begged those present, in case he should be attacked for 
the murder in the public prints, to save his honour, as he 
was placed by that event in a false light, but in reality was 
wholly innocent of it. 

He asserts, that he knew nothing of any plot against the 
count's life, and had no anticipation of so frightful an issue \ 



414 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

that he had thought nothing more was intended than the 
demolition of the building, and, at most, the ill-treatment of 
the minister ; but that he, on the contrary, stimulated by 
ambition, had aimed at preventing this, stepping in as a 
mediator, and distinguishing himself; for his whole beha- 
viour, from the time of his first appearance in the War 
Office, showed the intention and purpose only of putting a 
stop to the bloodshed, to effect a pacification and con- 
ciliation. 

He added, that he had engaged in these occurrences like 
a lever, without his fault ; but he wished, having fallen into 
the power of the people (as he expresses it), to reconcile the 
two parties; and it was only his danger and fear of passing 
for a traitor to the people, that induced him afterwards to 
assist in seeking for the count. 

By the sentence of the court-martial of March 14, 1849, 
Wangler, Brambosch, Jurkovich, Kohl, and Johl, found 
guilty of participation in the murder of the R. I. General 
and Austrian Minister of "War Count Baillet de Latour, — 
which crime is aggravated in the cases of Brambosch and 
Johl by their share in the insurrection, are doomed, the 
three first to death by hanging; but Kohl and Johl, in 
consideration of the probability, that at the time when they 
took part in the crime they believed the victim to have been 
already actually dead, are sentenced each to twenty years' 
fortress-labour in heavy irons; further, by the subsequent 
decree of the court-martial of July 9, 1848, Neumayer, 
Pawikausky, and Fischer, convicted of a share in the murder, 
with the aggravation of public acts of violence by Pawi- 
kausky, and by Fischer of a concealment of arms during the 
state of siege, in defiance of strict legal prohibition, from 
imperfect proofs furnished by concurrent circumstances — are 
sentenced, Neumayer and Pawikausky to twenty years', and 



MURDEft OF COUNT LATOUE. 415 

Fischer to fifteen years' fortress-labour, in heavy irons, 
Pawikausky likewise to fast one day in every week : fur- 
ther, Major, Wilhelm, and Rausch, for their participation in 
the murder, are condemned, the first to ten years', the second 
to eight years' fortress-labour, in heavy irons : and Rausch to 
six years' fortress arrest, in irons : and these sentences to be 
carried into execution. 

There still remains the brief notice of the results of the 
investigation into the circumstance which appeared in the 
acts, that both at the strangulation in the courtyard, and 
at that in the square, a white military belt was employed, 
both of which belts the actors in the scene afterwards appa- 
rently joined together. 

One of these belts, which was brought to the hospital 
with the dead body, was, according to distinct information, 
taken from a subaltern officer of the Duke of Nassau 
infantry regiment on the 6th of October ; the other appears 
to have belonged to the grenadier who deserted at the 
Tabor from Baron Hess's infantry, who, it appears, was killed 
in a subsequent conflict in the ranks of the insurgents. 



416 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 



THIRD SECTION. 



THE ASSASSINATION : ITS ORIGINATORS AND PROMOTERS. 

The mob which entered the War Office on the afternoon 
of the 6th October consisted of a motley mixture of persons 
of all ranks and classes of society. Still, among these it is 
easy to point out those classes which were distinguished by 
their activity and their numbers, and which took a prominent 
part in the perpetration of the crime. 

These classes are : the members of the Academical Legion, 
who led on, and who directed the assault ; the National Guards 
of the suburbs, and especially of the suburb of Wieden ; and 
the labourers, and among these chiefly the navigators of 
the Southern Railway. 

The judicial inquiry has proved, beyond the possibility of 
a doubt, that the assassination of the Secretary at War was 
deliberately planned, and that in the " Aula " in particular 
it had been prepared and formally announced. To these 
facts we have the concurrent testimony of the witnesses, and 
of the criminals themselves. 

It will, however, prove satisfactory further to substantiate 
the fact by a summary of the evidence which bears upon this 
point of the insurrection. 

On the 4th October, 1848, at 9 o'clock A.M., a very re- 
spectable witness entered the lower arcade of the New Uni- 
versity building. He was led by curiosity, having, as he 
passed, heard the violent outcries of many persons assembled 
on the premises. 






MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 417 

On entering, he saw a crowd of National Guards, labourers, 
and students, with red caps and " Ziegenhain " cudgels. 

Several of the students made inflammatory orations. They 
addressed themselves to the labourers, and attempted to 
induce them to assist in the impending assault upon the War 
Office, and to bring their friends and comrades with them for 
the same purpose. The speakers protested that the labourers 
alone could manage to preserve the liberty of the country. 
They added, that the functionaries of the Government ought 
to be hanged, and that Latour, the greatest foe to freedom, 
ought to be the first to whom they (the labourers) should 
award that doom. 

The witness reported these facts at once to the Secretary 
at War, and on the morning of the 6th October, when he 
(the witness) left the War Office, he saw several groups of 
well-dressed civilians fraternizing with the Archduke Lud- 
wig's grenadiers, and imploring them to stand by the people, 
and, in case of a conflict, not to fire upon their brethren. 

We have already stated in the first chapter, that half an 
hour before the crime was perpetrated, a student boldly 
announced in the Aula, that Latour had been condemned 
by the Diet. 

Another student, and to all appearance an Hungarian, 
declared, eight days before the perpetration of the deed, that 
Latour must needs die. He said this publicly, in a chop- 
house in the Schultergasse. And at noon, on the 6th Oc- 
tober, the same student protested in the same house that 
" this was Latour's last day." On the following morning he 
boasted of the accuracy of his prediction. 

Immediately after the termination of the contest at 
the Tabor, a student proceeded from thence to the city, and 
addressed the crowd which had collected at the entrance to 
the Prater, with the words, " By half-past four o'clock, 

2 E 



418 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

Latour must be hanged ! " It appears from the evidence of 
numerous witnesses, that the assassination of the Secretary at 
War was publicly announced among the mob at the Tabor on 
the morning of the 6th October, and that it was said, "When 
we have done here, we must go back to the town, and Latour 
is the first who ought to be hanged." 

A member of the Central Democratic Committee, too, 
mentioned the contemplated murder, at a private party, a few 
hours before its perpetration, and just before the crime was 
committed several students were seen hastening into the 
War Office, calling out and declaring that such an act had 
been resolved upon. 

A mob, led by an engineer in the uniform of the Acade- 
mical Legion, forced an entrance into the shop of a gunsmith, 
in the Bognergasse, opposite to the War Office. They took 
muskets, pistols, and swords, to the value of 4,345 florins, and, 
thus armed, they rushed into the War Office. 

If it be considered that the Secretary at War received no 
less than five intimations and warnings of the fate which was 
in store for him, it becomes evident, that his death by the 
hands of assassins had in a manner become a public secret, in 
the city as well as in the suburbs. 

Nor ought it to be forgotten, that various persons brought 
ropes to the War Office, and that during the assault, when- 
ever the zeal of the mob seemed to slacken, well-dressed 
persons were found to rouse the popular fury by calling out 
that the Secretary at War ought to be hanged. All these 
facts prove that the crime was deliberately prepared and 
planned, and it is moreover worthy of notice, that the very 
preamble to the last will and testament of the victim, plainly 
expresses a foreboding of his wretched fate ; for it shows that 
Latour was fully aware of the danger of his position, and 
the abandoned wickedness of that party against which he 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 410 

stood up for order and right, to the sacrifice even of his own 
life. 

Besides mentioning the perseverance of the engineer 
Rausch in the search after the Count Latour, the mur- 
derous zeal of the students, who inflamed the minds of the 
labourers and National Guards, and the impatience of the 
student Wedel, who " longed to get at him," several mem- 
bers of the Academical Legion have been identified amidst 
the crowd of assassins which thronged the courtyard. 

One of these students forced an inactive spectator to arm 
himself with a cudgel, and another student, rushing forth 
from the circle of bandits, boasted, in a loud voice, that he, 
" too, had struck a blow at Latour." 

Students were seen with the spoils of the "War Office, viz., 
sword-belts and pieces of gold lace, &c, in their hands, which, 
they distributed among the people as tokens of victory. 

On the evening of the 6th October, six members of the 
Academical Legion were seen standing under the gateway of 
the house 155, City, where they divided the plunder of the 
"War Office, viz., a shagreen case, a watch, sundry maps, &c. ; 
and Edward Merlitschek, the adjutant of Wutsckel (who has 
since been sentenced for. riot), was in possession of a sword 
which he obtained during the sacking, and which he used to 
designate as his "Latour sword." Another member of the 
Academical Legion, who received his death-wound at the time 
of the assault upon the arsenal, presented to his mistress a 
fragment of the star of the order which Count Latour 
wore, and which fragment, at a later period, was given up 
to the court-martial. 

A crowd of students pierced Count Latour's uniform, &c., 
with bayonets ; and holding them aloft, carried them to 
the Aula. The papers, &c., found in the count's apartment 
were likewise conveyed to the university building, when 

2e 2 



420 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

they were given in charge of Habrowsky, the president of 
the committee of students. 

Near the Aula, too, a torn piece of the murdered man's 
shirt was offered for sale at the price of two kreutzers ; and 
everywhere, in the coffee-houses and on the barricades, the 
students proclaimed the perpetration of the crime with 
cheers and other signal manifestations of pleasure. 

It was at the instigation of two students that several 
persons were ill treated and arrested for having expressed 
their disapprobation of the stripping of the corpse, as it hung 
at the lamp-post. One young man had a newspaper, " The 
German Eagle," affixed to the bleeding body; and these 
degenerate young men prevented even the cutting down of 
the hacked and mutilated body. 

The blood of the victim was still reeking on the pavement 
when the student proposed another crime, viz., the assault 
upon the arsenal. Torches were lit and distributed among 
the people, and the notorious Dr. Becher was instructed by 
the commander of the Aula to attract the population of the 
country by rockets and other fiery signals from the tower of 
St. Stephen. 

On the morning of the crime, the emissaries of the Aula 
made their appearance in the workshops of the Gloggnitz 
railway, in the factories, and among the navigators of the 
" Wiener Berg," for the purpose of collecting the labourers, 
and drawing them into the city. Many labourers refused 
to accompany them, but they returned in the afternoon of 
the same day, with drums and martial music, and having 
armed the labourers with spears, poles, and cudgels, they 
conducted them into the city, when they were drawn up 
around the university building. Led by the students, part 
of this misguided mob was afterwards sent into the various 
streets around the Aula, where they constructed barricades,, 



AIUEDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 421 

while those which remained near the university were told 
in so many words, that they ought to defend liberty by 
murder and assassination. Nor did the tempters forget to 
designate three persons who were to be the first victims of 
the misguided passions of the populace. It was then that 
the crowd of assassins hastened to the War Office, and when 
the crime was committed, they were seen flourishing their 
bloody weapons on their way back to the Aula, where they 
were paid for the work they had done on that day. And 
one of them, with his reeking spear, entered the board-room 
of the committee of students, recounting the details of 
the crime, and describing the manner in which he had 
pierced Latour's throat, and loudly asking, with unequalled 
effrontery, whether he had done the trick "in the right 
way?" 

Nor are Wangler and Major the only persons who accuse 
the students as the originators and promoters of their 
misfortunes. The same complaint has been uttered by 
sundry others of the prisoners ; and one of the accomplices 
(whom it was, however, impossible to convict) cursed the 
students, with great vehemence, for having seduced and 
tempted him. He said, " While they squandered the money 
which they got from Hungary, they have driven us poor 
labourers into death and desperation ! " 

After reading the evidence of Wangler and Jurkovich, 
and the statements made by Brambosch, Pawikausky, and 
Fischer, there can be no doubt that the assassins were paid 
by the Aula; and from the examination of another prisoner 
it appears that a reward of five florins was given for a 
cannon, which was captured at the Tabor, and taken to the 
Aula. 

The deputy Borrosch, too, expressed his belief that Count 
Latour had been nmrdered by hired assassins. He pointed 



422 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

out the striking similarity between this crime and that to 
which Count Lamberg fell a victim at Pesth, and he dwelt 
on the dogged perseverance with which the crowd, of about 
fifty or sixty persons, in its attack upon Latour, broke 
through the ranks of the guards who protected him. 

This deputy expresses his opinion, that the people of the 
lower classes cannot be thought infected with political fana- 
ticism. The people at large are indeed open to the feeling 
of hatked; but even this feeling requires a large crowd 
to produce : many persons must co-operate and excite one 
another, and this did not happen in Latour's case ; for 
Mr. Borrosch had addressed the people at the "War Office, 
calmed their passion, and taken them to the place of St 
Stephen. Scarcely twenty persons remained behind. 

It is consequently evident, that the Aula was the 
moving centre of this crime, and its action produced the 
corresponding action of all the accessories to this fatal 
deed. 

The young men who pursued their studies at Vienna, and 
who formed the bulk of the Academical Legion, were mixed 
up with a mass of heterogeneous and, for the greater part, 
impure elements. Clerks, lithographers, house-painters, 
barbers, writers, and actors of great arrogance and no 
talent j tramping adventurers, and the scum of foreign 
countries, — -spiritual paupers — men whom no change could 
deprive of blessings which they did not possess, and whom 
every change might serve — these had made their way into 
the Academical Legion, and by their violence and reckless- 
ness, they lorded it over its councils, and directed its action. 
To these we must add the members of the various demo- 
cratic associations, to whom agitation wa,s a trade, and who 
at last succeeded in lowering the* students of Vienna to the 
level of the praetorians of the revolution. 



MURDEB OF COUNT LATOU3. 423 

The superintendence of the associations of labourers by 
students, and especially by engineers, and the plan of sending 
agents to the factories and workshops, served to organize the 
labourers, and to keep them in a perpetual state of excite- 
ment and dependence upon the Legion. Hence the readiness 
with which these men assembled at the orders of the Aula, 
thus contributing to its importance, and stimulating its arro- 
gance. The well-disposed among the workmen were awed 
by the terrorism of their fanatic companions; many were 
compelled to join the tumultuous processions, and to perpe- 
trate crimes which they, in their hearts, abhorred. 

Co-operating with the students, there were clubs of dema- 
gogues displaying their fatal activity and instilling the 
poison of their depraved doctrines into the mi rids of the 
population. They addressed themselves to the lowly and 
the ignorant, and it is to them we trace that excitement 
which bordered upon madness, which has been shown by the 
National Guards of the suburbs, but especially of the suburb 
of Wieden, where Tausenau and Chaises established their 
head-quarters. 

Lost alike to progress and improvement, they preached a 
crusade against the powers that be, and under the specious 
promise of a golden age, they advised the overthrow of all 
existing laws and conditions of society, hatred against 
property and possessions ; for their ideal of a political society 
was the illegal reign of the strong hand. These were the men 
who sought for luxury in the general misery, and who make it 
difEcult to say which was greater, the credulity of the crowd 
or the effrontery of its prophets. 

The nearest and most feasible object of the leaders of the 
Eadical party was the institution of a republic on the ruins of 
the dismembered monarchy. This is shown by the results of 
the closest inquiry, by their own statements, and by the pro- 



424 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

testations of their printed publications. But it is an error to 
believe that the introduction of a republican form of govern- 
ment would have satisfied them, or that it would have termi- 
nated the revolution. ]STo ! very few indeed of the leaders 
were dupes and enthusiastic, or really believed that their 
boasted republic would tend to improve the condition and 
secure the welfare of the people. The majority of the men 
who guided the movement were impelled by nearer and more 
practical motives. Their object was more wicked and less 
visionary. 

They agitated for a republic, as the most fitting arena for 
their selfish passions, and they prized that form of govern- 
ment, inasmuch as it favoured their interest, their lust of 
dominion, their greed, or their vanity. If they should have 
been disappointed in their expectations, they would have 
overthrown the republic as they overthrew the monarchy; 
for Revolution was the only means which could ever invest 
them with a short-lived importance. 

Middling writers, who looked upon political agitation as 
offering the most profitable career ; men of great ambition 
and no merit, — bold of front, strong of lungs, and quick of 
tongue ; worthless subalterns and would-be ministers ; the 
avaricious, greedy, and iron-fisted, who looked upon the revo- 
lution and the general misery as a source of profit ; spend- 
thrifts, who, having run through their fortunes, felt a desire to 
defray the expenses of their disgraceful career by means of the 
public purse ; adventurers, and men of tainted character : such 
is the list of those who presumed to overthrow the fabric of 
the state, and to amuse the misguided crowd with their phan- 
tasmagorias of popular sovereignty and republican blessed- 
ness. 

Several of these men had the candour to confess that they 
carried matters to the last extreme, because they had reason 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 425 

to fear that they would be hanged. It is worthy of remark 
that the usher of the Central Committee of all the democratic 
associations has stated, that these gentlemen, on their own 
showing, appeared to him a set of great egotists, who sought 
to overthrow the government, because they wished them- 
selves to govern. 

The tools and champions of the movement were very 
much of the same stamp as the masters ; agitation was to 
them neither more nor less than a profitable trade, and an 
easy means of gaining their livelihood. To take an instance 
out of many, we state the case of two Jewish captains of the 
garde mobile, who were captured after the conquest of the 
city, and who, when asked for an account of themselves, 
stated that they were " Borsianer," or stock-brokers. When 
asked how they had been induced to enter their military 
career, they both candidly confessed, that the suspension of 
mercantile operations having interfered with their usual 
occupation, they had thought proper to accept of an offer of a 
captaincy, with a pay of 6 florins per diem. 

The germs of that most terrible of all despotisms, the 
despotism of the mob, were clearly visible on the 6th October; 
but from that day forward they developed themselves with 
an alarming energy. 

The judicial inquiry has shown, that even before the 
murder was committed, various persons of all classes were, 
under the most ridiculous pretences (as, for instance, on 
account of their dress), seized in the streets, ill-treated, and 
incarcerated in the Aula or in the Civic Arsenal. In the 
presence of the terrible events in the War Office, indifference 
and inactivity were considered as a crime, and in the course 
of the following days it was an act of signal courage for an 
honest man to show his face in the streets. Even the do- 
mestic hearth offered no protection, for many instances are 



426 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

on record of peaceable and even of decrepit and aged people, 
who were forcibly arrested by the armed mob, and pressed 
into the service of the revolution. It is a gross mistake to 
believe that the higher and wealthier classes of the popula- 
tion alone emigrated from Yienna. On the contrary, people 
who had nothing which they could call their own, fled (in 
spite of the assurance of the Diet that Vienna was tranquil) 
from their homes, to escape from the arbitrary dictates of 
brute strength, and from the dangers of a city, in which a 
word or a look sufficed to arouse the vindictive spirit of the 
populace. 

Already was the reign of terror preparing ; the heads of 
parties were already commencing the contest for the reins of 
government ; lists of proscriptions were making ; a crowd of 
victims from the very ranks of the Radicals were destined to 
share the fate of the Secretary at War, and nothing remained 
of liberty but the mere shadow, when the tottering fabric of 
the state was sustained by the arms of the loyal army. 

But more effective even than the clubs, for the purposes of 
the revolutionists, was the press. This mighty engine was in 
the hands of selfish and venal partisans, who used it for the 
purpose, of murder and destruction, and the poison of a hellish 
doctrine was circulated by a host of publications. It took 
effect ; and in the very lowest classes, especially, it produced a 
brutalization of mind, of which it is next to impossible to 
form any adequate idea. 

The rude and ignorant were told, that dependence on legal 
power was oppression and slavery ; that property interfered 
with their welfare ; that they ought to take their fortune into 
their own hands ; that they were entitled to oppose, and that 
they had a right to make armed resistance. 

Such teaching soon induced them to become familiar even 
with crime. 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 427 

On the other hand, the licentious liberty of the press, with 
a mere nominal press-law, opened a wide breach to an irrup- 
tion of private malice and calumny ; licentious and egotistical 
writers had it in their power to defame any character, and 
(as will be shown presently) to draw public animosity upon 
the devoted heads of their antagonists. Nor was there a 
remedy. The power of the state was paralyzed by terrorism, 
and actions for libel could not be thought of. 

The diaries and other writings found in the possession of 
several culprits, display a confusion of ideas which borders 
upon insanity. Young men, and indeed mere boys, tutored 
by this street literature, showed a precocity of depravity, 
which awakens pity for the lot of their parents. 

An artisan of the suburb of Wieden, when arrested, and 
when part of his own bloodthirsty letter was read to him, 
fell on his knees, and protested, with sobs and lamentations, 
that he had been maddened by the reading of the street 
newspapers; that he had at last come to doubt his own 
existence, &c. &e. 

The navigators of the Southern Eailway, who in the month 
of March were animated with the best spirit, were not proof 
against the seduction of the communistic newspaper. They 
became disorderly, rebellious, and, at length, they actually 
terrorized their overseers. One of the foremen, who disturbed 
them in a serenade of " rough music," came to be a special 
object of their hatred. They entered his house and demo- 
lished his furniture, and when he entered the workshop, they 
seized him, and endeavoured to fling him into the furnace. 
He was at length rescued by the intervention of some other 
men. 

A variety of similar instances of cruelty and barbarism 
are recorded in the acts of the inquiry into the riots of the 
21st and 23rd of August, 1848. 



428 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

Inflammatory publications were found in the possession of 
almost all the accessories to the murder. Some had large 
bundles of these papers, and the influence of these publi- 
cations is so manifest, that we may say these men fell 
victims to the liberty of the press. And let it be remem- 
bered that all these instances refer to one inquiry, and to 
only one crime of the many, which were committed in that 
fatal time. 

As if following up a pre-concocted plan, we behold in 
August, and still more in September, the Aula, the clubs, and 
"the Radical press directing their attacks and aspersions with 
still increasing vehemence against the Secretary at War. 
Their accusations become daily more violent, and betray a 
desire to make Count Latour an object of public animosity. 

As the fatal day approaches, the language of the dema- 
gogues grows more clear and distinct. No longer do they 
speak of overthrowing the cabinet or Latour. No ! they 
designate him as the victim — as one doomed to death — and 
thus they attempt to foist their disgraceful revenge upon the 
people at large. 

The Constitution newspaper, of the 4th October, repri- 
mands the people and the Diet. It protests that Count 
Latour ought not to be allowed to continue at large ; and the 
Studentine Courier, of the same date,* publishes a song, "a la 
Iwiteme" in which the assassination of the aristocracy is 
recommended as a sacred duty. 

But that the real gist of the question might be a secret to 
no man, the Wiener KrakeUer published, with the motto : "A 
few days before the Borrosch and Lohner Cabinet," the figures 
of three members of the actual ministry, suspended from a 

* M. Oscar Falke, the editor of this publication, has been prosecuted 
for various swindling transactions which he committed in the canton of 
Neufch&tel. Warrants were out for his apprehension. 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 42 9> 

gallows ; Count Latour was one of the three ministers. This, 
then, was the programme of the 6th October, and this pub- 
lication was openly sold in the streets of Vienna. 

That this fatal seed fell on a fruitful soil is clearly shown 
by the example of Joseph Bartholomew Stapf, a foreman of 
the navigators, in the Briinndelfeld, who has since been con- 
demned for riot and rebellion. A few days before the 
murder, this man read to his fellow-labourers an infamous 
libel against the Secretary at War, and on one of the labour- 
ers asking whether no rope or bullet could be found for 
Latour, he produced his purse, saying " that this was money, 
and though a rope for Latour might cost as much as one 
florin, he would find the money to pay for it ; that Latour 
ought to be hanged, and that some bold fellow could easily 
be found who would tie him up for a hundred ducats." 

At midnight, on the 6th October, the same Joseph Stapf 
repaired from the Arsenal, where it is supposed he com- 
mitted arson, and led the assault to the " Hof," and placing 
himself in front of La tour's body as it hung on the lamp- 
post, he cried out : " So you see, my fine fellows, things have, 
after all, turned out according to my wish !" 

In the face of these facts the chief of the assassins pre- 
sumed to speak of popular hatred to which the Secretary at 
War fell a victim. And yet it is notorious that several of 
the condemned culprits have protested that, had it not been 
for the ceaseless agitations against Latour, they would never 
have thought of him, much less would they have hurt him. 
Certain it is, that one-half of the agitation which was set on 
foot against the Secretary at War, would have sufficed to 
devote the most popular of the party chiefs of that time to 
the same fate. 

The scenes and facts which we have recorded are a general 
explanation of the event of the 6th October and partly of 



430 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

the assassination of the minister; for they testify to the 
existence of a party, which, in intimate correspondence with 
similar parties abroad, and especially in Germany, and em- 
boldened by the events of the 15th and 26th of May, and of 
the 23rd August and 13th September, 1848, watched its 
opportunity and snatched at every pretence for fresh riots, 
partly because the revolution had come to be a vital prin- 
ciple of its unnatural position, and partly in the hope of 
compassing, by any means, however bad they might be, their 
object, viz., the dissolution of the monarchy. 

It is quite natural that this party, supported as it was by 
the Left of the Diet, the chiefs of the democratic clubs, and the 
leaders of the Aula, should strain every nerve to overthrow 
the existing cabinet, whose energetic opposition against its 
intrigues it had reason to fear ; and it is not less natural 
that its attacks should have been specially directed against 
the Secretary at War, for he was the chief of the army, and 
it was he who, in the sitting of the Diet of the 13th Sep- 
tember, directed public attention to the intrigues of the 
Aula, Nor can it be wondered at, if we consider the stores 
of inflammatory matter in the minds of men, that the sense- 
less and fatuous multitude was so easily goaded on to 
rebellion, and even to murder. This is proved by contem- 
poraneous events in foreign countries, and by the demon- 
strations against the Count Montecuccoli and Baron Doblhof 
and others at Vienna. 

On the other hand, it cannot be denied that there were 
many who desired the overthrow of the government, but 
who were not prepared to sanction the assassination of Count 
Latour ; and that others, although willing to accept of the 
result of the crime, cannot, from a legal point of view, be 
considered as its accessories. In the eyes of the judge, the 
promoters of the assassination are confined to a narrow 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 431 

sphere, and even of them, the names of many are still hid 
in obscurity. But though in this respect the law may com- 
mand caution and reserve, there is no reason why we should 
deal tenderly with the real promoters and instigators of the 
crime. 

In tracing a crime home to its perpetrators, the question 
naturally arises, " Who could profit by the deed !" It is a 
useful question ; but never was it more useful than in the 
present instance. 

The state of public affairs in Hungary was the immediate 
cause of the event of the 6th October, and the faction which 
had usurped the government of that country, may safely 
boast of having, within eight days, directed the poniards of 
hired assassins against two men, whose only crime was, that 
they were obstacles in the way of the insane lust of dominion 
of a man who knew how to dazzle the misguided multitude 
with a show of patriotism, and who, if need be, would not 
have hesitated to cut his way to the dictatorship through the 
corpses of his own adherents. 

It is a remarkable feature in the public life of this political 
actor, that he promotes his selfish objects by exciting the 
lowest passions of humanity, and that the calculations for his 
plans are based upon the avarice, sensuality, egotism, — in 
short;, upon the vices of mankind. Kossuth owes his suc- 
cesses rather to the judicious practice of this principle, than 
to his hypocrisy and his oratorical talents. 

As a proof of this assertion, we remind our readers of the 
events (in September, 1848) at Buda and Pesth, where 
enormous sums were expended to bribe the garrison. 

The inroad and the rapid advance of the Ban of Croatia, 
threatened the most serious dangers to Kossuth's party. 

A deputation which, on the 7th September, was sent from 
Pesth to the Emperor, with the most outrageous demands. 



432 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

failed to accomplish its object. On the 19th of the same 
month, another attempt was made with a second deputation, 
which obtained the co-operation of the Austrian Diet for the 
promotion of certain illegal and dangerous objects. 

This attempt, too, proved abortive, and the danger became 
more imminent. 

On the 22nd and 25th of September the two royal mani- 
festoes were published. They convinced Kossuth and his 
partisans that the Emperor and his government were 
determined energetically to oppose their intrigues. 

Field-Marshal Lieutenant the Count Lamberg, a royal 
commissioner, arrived at Buda, and the Ban of Croatia, who 
threatened the city, was preparing to stifle the rebellion in 
its cradle. 

To paralyze his antagonists by terror, to spread confusion 
among their ranks, it was thought fit to have recourse to 
" saving deeds ;" and the motto of the master, not " to shrink 
from the assistance even of hell," was now carried into 
practice. 

On the 28th September, Count Lamberg fell under the 
daggers of hired assassins; but his death wrought no change 
in the situation of the parties, for the Emperor's manifesto, 
of the 3rd October, appointed the Ban of Croatia in Lamberg's 
place. It was then that the Hungarian conspirators turned 
to their brethren and allies at Vienna. They were worthy 
of the confidence thus reposed in them. 

The connection between the agitators of Hungary and 
those of Vienna commenced in August, 1848. On the 
oth September the first Hungarian deputation received the 
formal promises of the Aula, The students supported the 
creation of a free corps for Hungary, and some of them pro- 
ceeded to Pesth, where one student took part in the assassina- 
tion of Count Lamberg. 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 433 

The demagogues of Yiemia were meanwhile preparing to 
strike a decisive blow ; they gained over part- of the National 
Guard ; the leaders of the democratic associations formed a 
Central Committee, and, as though on the eve of a battle, they 
held a secret council of war on the 5th October. 

On the following morning the march of the Bichter Grena- 
diers became the longed-for signal for a revolt, and the Secre- 
tary at War fell as the second victim of Kossuth's policy. 

The intercepted correspondence between the Ban and the 
Secretary at War, of which Szemere sent 600 copies to 
Yienna, which were distributed among the deputies who 
had been gained over to the Hungarian party, furnished the 
Diet, as well as the demagogues of the clubs and the Aula, 
with a welcome excuse for interpellations, orations, and 
inflammatory articles, by which they still further excited 
that hatred and animosity, which the rulers at Pesth wished 
to attend upon the devoted head of Count Latour. 

Even Schiitte, the republican, admits that the secret 
causes of the Yienna revolution of October are most in- 
comprehensible, and, indeed, it must appear inexplicable to 
every man of candid mind, that, considering the notoriety 
and the scandal of the Hungarian question, the Badical press 
should have dared so grossly to impose upon the public, and 
to adopt a tone of language which amounted to treason. 

But as to the motives which prompted this inexplicable 
conduct on the part of the Yienna press, they are most 
plainly shown by the correspondence and the minutes of 
the transactions of the Hungarian Cabinet, and of several 
chiefs of factions. 

A letter of the 2nd August, 1848, which Kossuth (then 
Minister of Finance) addressed to the Under Secretary of 
State for Foreign Affairs, Francis Pulszky (then at Yienna), 
instructs Mr. Pulszky to pay 400 florins per quarter to 

2f 



434 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

those persons who advocate the interests of Hungary in the 
Vienna periodical press; and in a letter dated of the 17th 
September, the President of the Cabinet, Count Batthyany, 
informs the said Mr. Pulszky, that if he wanted a couple of 
thousand of florins to gain the sympathies of the Viennese 
for Hungary, he (the said Mr. Pulszky) ought to draw 
upon N. the banker, for any amount he required for the said 
purpose. 

And it appears from Mr. Pulszky's official cash-book, that, 
referring to the above-mentioned letter, he drew upon the 
count to the amount of 2,828 florins. Prom the same cash- 
book it appears, that before and after the 6th of October, 
sundry sums of 500, 1,000, and 2,000 florins were paid to 
various Hungarian agents at Vienna, as well as to sundry 
periodical writers and editors of newspapers ; the sums are 
entered, with the dates of payment and the names of the 
parties who received them ; and it is expressly stated, that 
such sums were paid u for advocating the Hungarian interest 
in the press." 

Among the items in the same cash-book, we find travel- 
ling expenses for students ; fees paid to editors for consulta- 
tions ; and travelling expenses for the Hungarian guards 
who deserted from Vienna. And now let it be con- 
sidered, that the total of the expenses of the Hungarian 
ministerial chancellery, under Mr. Pulszky's direction, 
amounted in September (we quote from Mr. Pulszky's own 
books) to 92,810 florins, and in October to 41,477 florins, 
and that in September we may take off a sum of 12,000 
florins, which was for regular and bond fide expenses, while 
for October, the regular expenses amounted to 5,756 
florins, while the remainder of the sums above quoted 
were expended in the purchase of weapons, and other revo- 
lutionary outlays. Let it also be remembered, that in 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 435 

his letter of the lltli October, Kossuth authorized Pulszky 
to devote the whole of his cash in hand, and, if need be, 
the proceeds of a loan, which he was instructed to raise, 
to the promotion of the interests of Hungary ; and that 
as late as the 10th December, 1848, the sum of 10,000 
florins is credited to the Magyar agency at Vienna. These 
considerations convince us that the Hungarian Committee 
of Defence took the most effectual means to revive the 
sympathies of the Viennese for Hungary. According to 
the candid confession of the Radical papers, these sympathies 
had considerably cooled. Even an influential member 
of the opposition in the Diet declared that "it was im- 
possible to say that no one had taken money or money's 
worth;" and the above revelations go far to amplify that 
admission. 

But that the Hungarian party, co-operating with its 
Viennese allies, took part in the execution of the details, is 
sufficiently proved by various notes and memoranda which 
were found in the possession of Mr. Pulszky's secretary at 
Vienna. One of these documents records the payment of 
eight florins to each of fifteen grenadiers of the Battalion 
Richter, who deserted to the people at the Tabor. The 
total of the sum which these men received was 120 florins. 
To this we may add, the quarterly salaries to the Vienna 
Radical press ; the wages which were paid at the Aula for a 
cannon which was taken at the Tabor ; a subsidy of thirty 
florins for the assassin Jurkovich ; and by so doing we obtain 
an oflicial quotation of the prices of the glorious deeds of 
the 6th of October. The wages of u an incendiary at the 
arsenal" have not yet transpired, for the corresponding 
column in the record has been left a blank. 

Mr. Pulszky's secretary, to whom we adverted above, 
boasts in a letter which he addressed to Paul Nyary (dated 

2f2 



436 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

9th October, 1848), that lie had succeeded, with some 
trouble and much danger, to foment a mutiny among part 
of the troops, which, on the 6th October, were to march 
from Vienna to Presburg; and that in consequence of this 
manoeuvre the people had defeated a signal scheme of the 
reactionary party, while " Nemesis" had at length overtaken 
Latour. 

In his examination, the writer of the above letter de- 
signates his chief, Pulszky, as a leader of the Vienna move- 
ment, who had frequently ordered him to pay sums of 
money to students, &c. He also admits that he carried on 
an intercourse with Fenneberg (who received money), with 
the Committee of Students, and with the editors of the 
Radical papers. 

It appears, moreover, from official documents, that on the 
5th July, 1848, the Secretary at War, Count Latour, in- 
formed the Hungarian Cabinet, that he had thought proper 
to provide the military chest at Agram with a sum of 
100,000 florins. He demanded that the Hungarian Cabinet 
should repay that sum, and that for the future, an annual 
allowance should be made for the keep of the Croatian 
troops. The Hungarian Cabinet refused to comply with 
this demand. 

This circumstance explains the nugatory character of the 
accusations which, at a later period, were made against 
Latour. 

In a note of the 18th September, Count Batthyany in- 
structs Mr. Pulszky to proceed to Count Latour, and to 
demand his immediate compliance with certain extravagant 
demands respecting the troops, lest the Hungarian Cabinet 
should be compelled to have recourse to " other means." And 
on the 30th August, Kossuth informs Pulszky that a certain 
member of the Austrian Diet was prepared to impeach the 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 437 

aggressive policy which the Government had adopted against 
Hungary, but that he wanted dates, facts, and other materials. 
Kossuth communicates some of these dates. 

The very member of the Austrian Diet, who served Kossuth 
with such signal readiness and zeal, was adjured on the 6th 
October by Adjutant Niewiadomski, who afterwards ad- 
dressed M. Strohbach himself, to aid Count Latour, who was 
then being murdered by the mob. His entreaties were of 
course disregarded. 

The said member states, that he suffered at the time from 
a spasmodic attack in the heart, and that he cannot re- 
member that such a demand was made to him. It is, how- 
ever, satisfactory to know, that the spasm, if any, must have 
been of very short duration ; for the said deputy was almost 
immediately afterwards able to take a very prominent 
part in the debate on the assassination of the Secretary at 
War. 

It appears from official documents, that on the 4th Sep- 
tember the Austrian Cabinet complained to that of Hungary 
about the recruiting for an Hungarian free corps, which 
Meszaros caused to be carried on in the capital ; and on the 
13th September the Austrian Cabinet demands that the 
licentious conduct of the Hungarian agent shall be restricted, 
lest the recruits might be employed to revolutionize the 
capital. 

A collective note of the Austrian ministers (dated 29th 
June) shows that the organs of the Hungarian Government 
then, as at a later period, were repeatedly but vainly invited to 
consent to an arrangement of the various interests in the spirit 
of the Pragmatic Sanction, and divers documents prove the 
activity of the Hungarian agents in Yienna as well as in 
foreign countries. 

The papers found at Pesth furnish us with further revela- 



438 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

tions concerning the intimate connection between the Hun- 
garian and Austrian demagogues. 

With the motto, " The greater the need, the nearer the 
help !" we have a printed proclamation, signed by Paul 
Hajnik, the chief of the police. It informs the Hungarians 
of the Yiennese events, and the death of the Secretary at 
"War, and it lays great stress on the fact that " Hungary " 
was a popular -cry in Vienna. 

Alexander Mczky, a Government commissioner, announces 
from Oedenburg (dated 6th October), the events of Vienna, 
which, he is pleased to say, are very favourable for Hungary. 
He adds, that the Viennese friends of the Hungarians, and the 
deserters from the grenadiers, had routed the " black-yellows." 

Ladislaus Csany, writing to Kossuth, on the 7th and 8tli 
October, states that he had sent three couriers to Pesth, with 
very good news from Vienna. He declared, that at length 
darkness had been succeeded by light ; that the enemies of 
Hungary had found obstacles in their path, of the existence 
of which they had never dreamed ; that every eiFort ought 
to be made still more to humble them ; and that rapid and 
energetic measures ought to be adopted by the Hungarian 
Cabinet. He (Csany) was glad that he had done his best to 
rouse the " Aula," and he added, that he inclosed Pulszky's 
report of the events at Vienna. 

Pulszky's report is dated from Oedenburg, of the 7th 
October, and it commences by stating, that the democratic 
Hungarian party had obtained a complete victory. After 
recording the events of the day, and making especial mention 
of the Aula, he concludes by stating that he left Vienna at 
night, after the attack on the arsenal, and that, accompanied 
by Louis Batthyany, he was hastening to the camp at Vidos, 
to fetch the troops; for that it was absolutely necessary to 
attack Jellacic. 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 439 

On the 9th October, we have a letter from Csany, at 
Altenburg, to his friend Kossuth, informing him that the 
Yienna Aula had sent a plenipotentiary to him (Csany), and 
that he was preparing to send the said plenipotentiary to 
Pesth. He adds, that the zeal of the Academic Legion was 
quite refreshing to behold, that the Yienna Democratic Club 
relied on assistance to Germany, and that the Legion, as well 
as the club, ought to be tenderly dealt with. He also adds, 
that Pulszky has informed him, from Oedenburg, that Bat- 
thyany, too, was of opinion, that Jellacic ought to be driven 
to Yienna, and that he (Csany) was despatching directions 
to that effect. He (Csany) thought it his duty to allude 
to several persons of rank in Hungary, who were seriously 
compromised by certain letters which were found among the 
papers of Latour. He states, that M. Tausenau refused to 
communicate the original copies of these letters to all who 
were not of the very elite (vertrauteste manner), and that 
he (Csany) would consequently send his signet-ring, as a 
token that the letters might safely be shown. 

Csany also adds a written account of the Yiennese events, 
according to the statement of Dr. Eeiner, the plenipotentiary 
of the Aula, whose travelling expenses were paid by Pulszky. 
The said account states, that Tausenau, when informed that 
troops were about to be sent from Yienna into Hungary, 
consulted with the leaders of the Aula, and resolved, at any 
risk, to prevent the troops from marching. Yarious means 
were taken to effect this purpose, and the mistresses (madchen) 
of the grenadiers in particular were bribed to induce their 
lovers to remain. It is further stated, that negotiations were 
carried on between the Aula and the grenadiers ; that the 
latter declared, that they could not in common decency 
refuse to obey the order to march ; and that they suggested 
the propriety of the students and the people proceeding 



440 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

to the railroad and destroying the rails. This plan was 
finally adopted. When the troops, excited by bribes of 
money and wine, commenced their march, they were addressed 
by the National Guards of the suburbs, and the mob at large, 
who besought them to remain at Vienna. 

They were further moved and inspired by the tears and 
entreaties of their mistresses (madchen), who accompanied 
their march. When they arrived at the station, they were 
addressed by Willner, a student, who besought them to 
remain, and who, addressing General Bredy, insisted on the 
return of the troops. But when the General, regardless of his 
menaces, gave the word of command for the troops to march, 
he (the General), Lieutenant-Colonel Klein, and a major, 
were shot dead on the spot. 

The report, in its description of the conflict in the city 
(previous to the murder), states that the deputy Goldmark 
proposed to storm the arsenal, and to arrest Latour. It is 
further stated that the insurrection of the Aula was promoted 
by Lieutenant Kuchenbacker, who protested that 14,000 
German soldiers were prepared to join the rebellion. 

The evidence taken at this stage of the proceedings con- 
firms all the above details respecting the tampering with the 
grenadiers by means of money, wine, and venal women, as 
well as the distribution of printed bills, entreating the 
soldiers to desert ; the intrigues of a certain member of the 
Left in the Diet, the appearance (in the night of the oth) of 
several grenadiers in the Aula ; the intrigues of the engineers 
among the National Guards of the Wieden, for the purpose of 
retaining the soldiers, and the events on the march and at 
the Tabor. 

Nor ought it to be forgotten that several members of the 
Diet employed the most dishonourable means for their party 
purposes. M. Kudlich, a deputy, who assisted Tausenau in 



MURDER OF COUNT I/ATOUR. 441 

exciting the people and the troops by speeches, wine, and 
promises, pledged, in addressing the commander of the grena- 
diers, his honour for what he knew to be an untruth. He 
asserted that he was sent by the Diet to publish their resolu- 
tion, that the march should not take place. And M. Max 
Joseph Gritzner, a deputy, engaged Lieutenant-Colonel Klein 
in a conversation, and thus diverted his attention from the 
proceedings of the mob, while he motioned to the populace 
behind him to make a rush upon, and to capture the 
artillery. 

At a later period, on the 15th October, when M. Kudlich 
sought to assemble the Landsturm at Konigstafcten, he pro- 
tested that the events of the 6th of October had been 
contrived for the purpose of helping the Hungarians out of 
their scrape. 

This attempt, too, to organize the Landsturm in Austria, 
had its origin in Kossuth's instructions, as is shown by his 
correspondence with his agents at Vienna, viz., Pulszky, 
Stephen Gorove, L. Czernatovy, and others. 

If, in addition to these facts, we consider his persevering in- 
fluence (as shown by the same correspondence) in determining 
the resistance of the Viennese against the Emperor's troops ; if 
it be considered that Kossuth, writing from Presburg (30th 
October) to the Committee of Defence, protests, that in the 
battle of Schwechat Hungary had paid the debt due to the 
Viennese, and that in another letter (3rd November) he 
expresses a hope that the Aula (as Bern had informed him) 
would join his army ; if it be further considered, that on 
the 3rd October he instructed his commissioner, M. Sebastian 
Vukovich, to seize Latour's property in the counties of 
Temes and Torontal, because it was " Latour who caused 
the war in Hungary ;" and if we consider, lastly, that on 
the evening of the 6th October, and immediately after the 



442 IISTESTIGATION INTO THE 

murder, the committee of the democrats and students sent a 
petition to the Diet, praying for an amnesty for the mur- 
derers of Latour, the repeal of the manifesto of the 3rd Oct., 
and the dismissal of the Ban from all his offices ; and if it be 
considered, that the Left of the Diet presumed to embody 
this petition in an address to the Emperor, we say, if all 
these facts are well weighed, they must remove every shadow 
of a doubt as to the predominating influence which Kossuth's 
faction had on the assassination of the Secretary at War. 

We have, moreover, the evidence of the criminals and of 
the witnesses. Eausch, who is accused of taking part in 
the crime, affirms that after the murder, the students gene- 
rally designated Tausenau as having assisted Pulszky in 
causing the events of the 6th October. The students informed 
Eausch that Tausenau had collected Latour's papers, and 
that he had taken them to the Aula, and that he had, more- 
over (previous to the murder), excited the labourers with 
wine, speeches, and money. Eausch adds, that the fanaticism 
of the students could never have gone to such length, had not 
the Eadical deputies done their utmost to promote it. Pro- 
fessor Fiister, in particular, is named, as a man whose glow- 
ing orations (which Eausch believes to have been prompted 
by impure means) served to goad the students on to the 
maddest acts of excitement. 

Eausch, moreover, designates the Messrs. Goldmark, Yio- 
land, Kudlich, and Fischhof, and others, as the persons who, 
during the siege of 'Vienna, supported the defence by their 
inflammatory speeches. 

It appears, also, from the evidence of a foreman of the 
labourers, that Pulszky, who used to attend the sittings of 
the Democratic Club in the hotel " Zur Ente," distributed 
large sums of money among the labourers, to induce them to 
be in readiness whenever they might be wanted. The same 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 443 

witness states, that it was Pulszky who first started the 
plan of the garde mobile. 

M. Aigner, the commander of the Academical Legion, ex- 
j)ressed his opinion that the assassination of Latour had been 
caused by the Hungarians, and especially by Tausenau, 
Chaises, and Pulszky. This, he said, was the opinion of all 
the students. 

Habrowsky, too, the president of the Committee of Stu- 
dents, who at a later period went frequently into the camp 
of the Hungarians, is designated as having co-operated to- 
wards the events of the 6th October, for the benefit of the 
Hungarians. 

When the witness (viz. Aigner) met Tausenau and Chaises 
in the Students' Committee after the 6th October, he was 
extremely disgusted, and insisted on their expulsion. In sup- 
port of his view as to the originators of the assassination, 
this witness states, that eight days previously, two Hun- 
garians, one of whom he afterwards remarked as adjutant to 
Bern, came to him at night, and asked him to send two 
companies of students to the frontier between Hungary and 
Moravia, where they were to fight against Hurban. Witness 
refused to comply with this request, and he reported the 
case to the minister Baron Dobblhof. He is moreover of 
opinion that the Hungarians caused the events of the 13th 
September ; and here it may not be amiss to state, that 
among Pulszky's papers a note was found from Habrowsky, 
which contained the laconic statement that " everything was 
being provided for." 

Another influential member of the Academical Legion 
affirms, from his own knowledge and conviction, that Tau- 
senau frequently conversed with Pulszky, and that, by the 
favour of Habrowsky, Pulszky, Chaises, and Dr. Becher were 
allowed to attend the secret sittings of the Committee of 



444: INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

Students. This witness believes that Tausenau, Chaises, 
and perhaps Silberstein, were the only persons who were 
aware of, and who directed, the plot against the life of Count 
Latour, while public opinion fixes the same charge upon the 
democrats, Dr. Schutte, Becher, L. Eckardt, and Dr. G. 
Frank. 

A few days after the death of Latour, this witness saw 
Tausenau taking the papers of the Secretary at War, tied up 
in a handkerchief, from the Students' Committee-room to 
Ms own house. Several of the papers were afterwards pub- 
lished in the Radicate, edited by Becher. "Witness also 
heard Dr. Schutte boasting of his correspondence w T ith Kos- 
suth, who had pledged his word to assert the democratic 
principle in Hungary, after the termination of the contest. 
And lastly, this witness deposes that Fenneberg and Kuchen- 
b'acker offered to join the Legion on the 6th October, and 
that they were accepted. This last statement is confirmed 
hj Fenneberg's own pamphlet, containing an account of the 
events of the 6th October. In this work the author can- 
didly admits, if it had been possible to capture M. Bach, the 
minister, on that fatal day, that he would have shared the 
fate of Latour. 

It appears, from the depositions of a waiter to the Central 
Democratic Club (this club was, according to Dr. Schutte, 
the centre of the October movement), that immediately after 
the murder, several of the assassins made their appearance at 
the club ; that they reported the event ; that the democrats 
applauded them, and had much secret conversation with 
them ; and that afterwards several of the assassins were men- 
tioned as acquaintances by the members of the Democratic 
Club. 

One of the two vice-presidents of the Committee of Stu- 
dents afiirms that that Committee was gradually influenced, 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 445 

and at length altogether directed, by the Democratic Club, and 
particularly by Tausenau, Becher, Jellinek, and SchUtte, and 
that the motions and proposals of these persons were generally 
discussed in the secret sittings of the committee. The same 
witness states that the said club, by transferring its sittings 
to the hotel " Zur Ente," managed to intrude upon the 
Legion, and that several of its members were finally elected 
as members of the Committee of Students. He adds, that 
there can be no doubt of the fact that Tausenau and his 
friends used their influence in favour of the Hungarians, and 
that Chaises and Jellinek sought to effect a fusion between 
the Democratic Club and the Committee of Students. And 
further, that immediately after the news of the murder 
reached the committee, Lowenstein proposed to storm the 
arsenal, and that Fenneberg, Kuchenbacker, and Hauk 
offered to lead the assault. 

He also states that, in the course of the day, Goldmark, 
F lister, and Violand made their appearance in the committee ; 
that Goldmark urged the students to expel the troops from 
the town, and that Fiister informed them of the advance of 
the Ban to Wieselburg ; but that he protested that there was 
no reason to fear the Ban, because he was conquered, and a 
fugitive. 

A few days after the murder, the manager of Eurich and 
Klopf's printing-house told witness that he had been in- 
structed to discontinue the printing of Latour's papers, and 
that he had been ordered to return them to Habrowsky. 

Another witness, who was very candid in his confession 
(he was an engineer, and member of the Students' Com- 
mittee), states that Tausenau, Chaises, Habrowsky, Lowen- 
stein, and Eckardt were bribed by the Hungarian party. In 
the case of Habrowsky, he proves this assertion. He states, 
also that, after the 6th October, even persons of Radical 



446 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

principles, such as Wutschel for instance, expressed their 
horror and disgust of these persons to their very faces ; and 
that, as the murderers of Latour, they were not allowed to 
remain in the committee. And also that of these persons it 
had been generally known that they had promoted the crime, 
and approved of its perpetration. After Latour's death, it 
was often discussed in the Students' Committee whether or not 
the papers of the Secretary at War ought not to be taken away 
from Tausenau. The same witness reveals sundry important 
facts concerning Goldmark, and he proves that this person 
was subsidized by Pulszky, who paid him for his agitation 
in favour of Hungary. Goldmark influenced the Students* 
Committee, and he represented it in the Diet. It was he 
who prompted the students to violent resolutions, which he 
himself scrupled to agitate in public ; such as the organization 
of the Landsturm, the appeal to the Hungarians, &c. 

During the siege of the town, this witness and his friend 
"Wanitschke (who has been arrested, and who testified to the 
truth of the following statements) were engaged by Goldmark 
to proceed to Prague, for the purpose of exciting the Slavonian 
clubs and the poj)ulace of that city against the Government. 
Goldmark gave them sixty florins towards their travelling 
expenses, and also a passport, which was signed by Fischhof, 
and impressed with the seal of the Diet. He made them 
promise to report their success to him. Having pledged 
their word to this effect, the two students took the money, 
but considering that it was rather a small sum for an Hun- 
garian subsidy, they applied to the Students' Committee, and 
eventually received another sum of forty florins. They did 
not however proceed to Prague, but remained at Vienna ; 
for they had reason to believe that the commission was 
dangerous. 

Andreas Schumacher, a public writer, who has since been 



MUSDER OF COUNT LATOUE. 447 

sentenced, states that on the morning of the 6th October he 
came to the Aula, where he found 300 students under the 
command of Wutschel. None of them knew what was to be 
done ; but of a sudden Goldmark made his appearance. 
He inspected the detachment, and confronting witness 
(Schumacher), he seemed as if about to make an important 
communication; but stopping himself suddenly, he said : 
u Never mind ! — I dare say you will know your own business 
best when you are out there !" And on witness's question, 
Where % Mr. Goldmark replied, "At the Tabor." 

In the afternoon Schumacher watched the doings of the 
Aula. Everything was in commotion. At half-past 2 p.m., 
a large mob of armed navigators proceeded up the Backer- 
strasse. One of the students joined them, took the lead, 
and marched them away. The contest commenced imme- 
diately afterwards. 

Schumacher protests that Goldmark and Fischhof were 
the chief leaders of the University and of the Vienna Demo- 
crats ; that they aimed at the destruction of Austria ; that 
they co-operated with Kossuth ; and that to them the revo- 
lution of October was but a means for an end. He protests 
that Kossuth went for something even in the movement of 
March. 

Two officers of the "Vienna National Guard state that, on 
the afternoon of the 6th October, Goldmark addressed them 
on St. Michael's Place. He said things went on well, and if 
the National Guard held out, they would get the better of the 
troops in less than a quarter of an hour. He likewise 
accused the witnesses of idling about. 

A member of the association of Vienna Democrats deposes 
that this association was in constant correspondence with 
similar societies in Frankfort, Munich, and Gratz, and that 
it tended to convert the states of Europe into a federal 



448 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

republic, after the defeat and overthrow of the dynasties. 
As the chiefs of this association he designates Tausenau, 
Becher, and others ; and as leaders of the October revolution, 
he quotes Goldmark, Faster, Fischhof, and Kudlich ; and the 
agents Bern, Schlitte, Blum, Frobel, and Gritzner. 

In the case of a final victory, it was resolved to establish 
a provisional government from the members of the extreme 
Left ; Goldmark, Fischhof, Yioland, Fiister, and Frobel were 
designated as presidents. 

He states that Goldmark and Fischhof were the cause of 
the bloodshed after the capitulation. For when Habrowsky 
returned from the Hungarian camp, and informed them that 
Kossuth would attack the Imperialists, these two persons, 
accompanied by Blum and Frobel, ascended the tower of St. 
Stephen, and on their descent they informed the crowd that 
the Hungarians were fighting bravely, and that Yienna 
ought to hold out; whereupon the populace, uttering savage 
shouts, resumed the arms, which the majority had already 
resigned. 

Respecting the proposed presidency of Justinia Frobel, the 
Gassen Caitung, of the 26th September, contains an article 
which explains the confidence which that person enjoyed. 

This article states how this amiable man takes his leave 
from his friends, the democrats, and, as though foreseeing 
that important events would occur during his absence, he, 
after expressing his joy at the late alliance with the Mag- 
yars, and recommending the greatest centralization of the 
Yienna Radical associations, concludes his oration by pro- 
testing, " that the real revolution was yet to come ; that 
hitherto it had been a child's play; that the time was at 
hand when a few lives would go for nothing ; and that he 
hoped the Yienna democrats would not be idle in that time.' 5 
"We need scarcely say that this speech was violently cheered. 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 449 

Dr. Albert Trampusch, a member of the Frankfort parlia- 
ment, who has since received his sentence, expresses his 
opinion that the Vienna movement was not general, but that 
it originated with Tausenau and his set, and that Tausenau 
was a despicable person, who caused riots for money, never 
once caring what harm he might do. The said witness also 
states that Pulszky had frequent interviews with Tausenau, 
Chaisees, and Becher, and sometimes with Blum, and that it 
was Pulszky who distributed the money to the students. It 
was impossible to quote the sums ; but the fact had been 
generally believed and canvassed. 

Dr. L. Frankel, too, who was tried by court-martial, ex- 
pressed Ins conviction that the October movement was caused 
by the Hungarians. He states that in September, an Hun- 
garian deputation, led by Balogh, entered the Vienna De- 
mocratic Association, and that Balogh, in an inflammatory 
oration, urged the necessity of a co-operation between the 
democrats of Hungary and Vienna. His words took effect, 
and Eckardt and others were sent to Pesth. And further ; 
that when the second Hungarian deputation to the Diet- 
arrived at Vienna, Balogh again addressed the democratic 
associations, and the treaty of alliance was further confirmed, 

Frankel, too, was present when, on the 5th October, in 
the " Sperl Hotel," in the Leopoldstadt suburb, Tausenau 
was publicly accused of being paid by the Hungarians. On 
this occasion, a person of the name of Tillenberg told Tau- 
senau, he (Tillenberg) knew that he (Tausenau) had received 
2,000 florins in a letter from Pesth ; and Tausenau, when 
called upon for his answer, protested that this was not a 
place for explanations. After this, witness left the room; 
on the following day he was told by some friends who 
remained, that Eckardt proposed to prevent the march of the 
grenadiers, and that divers democrats, then and there assem- 

2g 



450 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

bled, proceeded to the Gumpendorf barracks to assure the 
grenadiers of the assistance of the National Guards. As a 
means of gaining the sympathies of the people, these demo- 
crats took with them a woman who was taught to curse, 
howl, and lament in a very shocking manner, with many 
loud protests that her brother, a soldier, was being flogged to 
death in the barracks, because he and his comrades refused 
to march against the Hungarians. 

In the Democratic Association, too, Frankel heard Tause- 
nau protesting that Latour and Bach ought to be hanged ; for 
which he stated his reasons at some length. Frankel says, 
that in this manner the mass of the democrats were made 
familiar with the idea of political murders ; and he also 
believes that sundry members of the Diet had a hand 
in the plot, but especially Goldmark and Fiister, of whom 
Frankel was told, by various persons, that early on the 6th 
October, they came to the Aula to arrange the proceedings 
of the day. He says that Goldmark and Fischhof were the 
most intimate friends of Tausenau, and that they had always 
been with him and with Violand, Becher, and Frank. 

To enable our readers to form a correct opinion of the 
connection which Balogh, an Hungarian deputy, and after- 
wards major of the Honved, entertained with the agitators 
at Vienna, we ought to state, that, according to the records 
of the court-martial at Pesth, the murderers of Count Lam- 
berg were traced home to Balogh, George Kolosy,and Kossuth. 
These three persons excited the Hungarian Parliament on 
and before the 28th September, 1848, by protesting that 
Count Lamberg was guilty of high treason; and by these 
protests they gave him up to the assassins, while a person 
named Danes (an ex-usher at the school for the blind, 
dismissed for seduction of youth, and profligacy), who it is 
thought was an agent of Kossuth, addressed the people out 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 451 

of doors, and entreated them to " kill the dog." Upon this^ 
the populace, like so many maniacs, rushed to the Pen- 
sioners' House, took scythes, and executed Kossuth's verdict 
and sentence on the spot. 

Kolosy, the chief criminal, confessed, that afterwards at 
Komorn, Balogh had asked him to set his mind at ease on 
Lamb erg's account, for that he (Kolosy) was not the cause 
of Lamberg's death, since Kossuth had instructed him 
(Balogh) to provide that the count should never leave the 
cities of Buda and Pesth. Balogh added, that on receiving 
these instructions, he had immediately taken measures to 
arrest the count in the hotel at which he had put up. 

In short, there is such a striking similarity between the 
assassinations of the Counts Latour and Lamberg, in all 
that regards arrangement, execution, and means, that this 
similarity alone makes one believe that, in either case, it 
was the same hand which directed the murderer's blade. 

A credible person heard, on the 13th September, Falke 
Bnchheim addressing the populace near the Aula, and pro- 
posing to seize and to hang the two ministers, Latour and 
Bach. The same person declares on his oath, that on the 
5th October (as we stated), Fninkel assembled the democrats 
at the " Sperl Hotel," and he adds, that the meeting 
commenced at eight p.m., and that Tausenau, Jellinek, 
L' wenstein, and Deutsch were present. On the following 
afternoon, the witness was at the Aula, and heard Tausenau 
and Chaisees calling upon the populace to hang the Count 
Latour. Upon this, they all rushed to the War Office. 
The same witness describes the procession of the assassins, 
and the delivery of the murderous weapons, and of a packet 
containing Latour's papers. He records the cheers and 
exultations, especially those of Tausenau, Fenneberg, Gold- 
mark, F lister, Yioland, and Ftister, who cried out, that 

2g2 



452 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

this was what they had wished for; that the Hungarians 
would rejoice, and that the affair was worth more than a 
million. The assassins were received with violent cheers, 
and a secret sitting of the Students' Committee was held, 
which was attended by Tausenau, Fenneberg, and several 
Hungarians. 

The same witness proceeded afterwards to the place of 
St. Stephen, where he found a deputy of the Left in the 
act of fraternizing with the people. He seemed but too 
happy to be cheered. A member of the mob showed him a 
bloody rag, saying, " Father, I have struck home at Latour ; 
here is a piece of his shirt. "Was I right ?" And the deputy 
replied, " Bravo, my child ! you were quite right ! " 

As to Fi'ster, it is affirmed by a kitchen-maid that lived 
near the University building, that at 5.30 p.m. the professor 
had received a troop of murderers with the words, u Bravo, 
my children !" 

Another witness of quality, whom curiosity had drawn to 
the Aula, describes the appearance of a young labourer who 
was armed with a hammer, and who made a violent speech, 
expressive of his desire for Latour's death. This man 
likewise rushed upon a prisoner, and desired his instant 
assassination. Witness saw the same labourer accompanying 
F lister as a volunteer, and, at a later period, he recognised 
him again as one of the murderers. He walked by the side 
of Jurkorich, and flourishing his hammer, he exclaimed, 
" We have done for Latour ! " 

From another source it appears, that F lister's confidential 
messenger (a labourer from the Briindelfeld) declared, on 
the evening of the 6th October, that the professor would 
move heaven and earth to induce the Diet either to procure 
or to grant an amnesty for the events of the day. The pub- 
lic street-bills said as much. Fuster, too, is one of the two 




MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 453 

deputies whom Adjutant Niewiadomski entreated to save 
Latour, to which entreaties Faster replied, that he would 
not meddle in the affair. That priest, when examined, . 
showed a marvellous composure. He said he was happy 
that he had not complied with the request to save the life 
of a fellow-creature ; for, exasperated as the people were, he 
could not, he said, prevent the crime, and his endeavours 
would certainly, so he thought, have been rewarded with 
that ingratitude which fell to his share on former occasions. 

Such are F lister's statements. But different are the 
accounts which we have from other witnesses respecting 
this field-priest of the Legion, academical preacher, and 
professor of theology. This man, who passed his leisure 
hours in making ball-cartridges for his pupils, took a pro- 
minent part in all earlier street rows and storm petitions ; 
he and his pupils influenced the labourers in the Prater 
on the 23rd and 25th of August ; and on the 26th Septem- 
ber he addressed an inflammatory oration to the students, 
and lavished his most violent abuse upon Latour and Bach. 
He was intimately acquainted with Pulszky, Schiitte, and 
other Hungarian and foreign agents. In October he con- 
certed almost daily with labourers, perjured soldiers, and 
insurgent students ; and to those who were loudest and 
most vehement in their declarations and protests, he made 
presents of two or three silver " zwanzieger." Besides, he 
frequently had secret consultations with Bee her, Jellinek, 
Lowenstein, Deutsch, and other persons. 

Early on the 6th October he was seen leaving the Stu- 
dents' Committee with a troop of armed youths. He shook 
hands with those that were proceeding to the Tabor, and he 
wished them good speed. He was afterwards seen at the 
Tabor, and the students say that early that morning he urged 
the grenadiers at Gumpendorf to resist the order to march, 



454 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

while, a few hours afterwards, at the Tabor, he excited his 
"dear boys," the students, and directed them to aim at- 
General Bredy. 

A certain witness heard Fiister at midnight and during 
the assault upon the arsenal, addressing the incendiaries on 
the bastions, and extolling " this victorious day as the most 
glorious in history ;" and a milliner deposes that on the 
morning of the 7th October, she saw Mr. Fiister in St. 
Stephen's Place, quarrelling with a student about the events 
of the day before. These events, it appeared, fell short of 
the professors expectations, and witness heard plainly, that- 
the student, in answer to his recriminations, protested that 
they (the students) had twice committed arson. 

Fuster's later deeds are worthy of this conduct. He 
joined Violand, Kudlich, Gritzner, Fenneberg, Blum, and 
Bern in their endeavours to sustain the defence by speeches, 
advice, hopes of Hungarian help, arrangements for summon- 
ing the Landsturm, lighting of the barricades, opening of 
windows, ringing the tocsin, and even by taking the sword 
and proceeding to the field. He was one of the most active 
and dangerous agitators of the revolutionary party, and he 
was evidently intent upon gaining the favour and confidence 
of youth, by the most disgraceful means of seduction, for the 
purpose of forming them into a praetorian guard for the 
accomplishment of his selfish purposes. 

In the first series of his evidence he calls himself the 
scapegoat of the Legion. He regrets that ever since August 
the Legion has, by the ultra-democrats, been misled into 
false measures, but that he (Fiister) had been inactive 
during that time, although he might, now and then, have 
paid a visit to the barricades, but merely from curiosity, and 
because he was fond of large crowds. He boasts, moreover, 
of having in July refused to listen to an LIungarian who 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 455 

came to him with certain proposals. He would not state 
what these proposals were. 

As for Tausenau, we have some characteristic features of 
him, as recorded in the evidence of one of his confidential 
friends. This friend describes a secret sitting, which was 
held* in Ckaisee's apartments in the hotel "Zur Ente." 
The persons present were, Tausenau, Ckaisees, Schiitte, 
Becker, Jellinek, Eckardt, Habrowsky, Fenneberg, Unter- 
schild, and an Hungarian, whom witness took for Csarnatong. 

The proceedings were opened by Tausenau, who informed 
the assembly that it was absolutely necessary for them to act 
offensively, and to prepare for further acts of popular justice; 
and after having abused the common council, " in which there 
are but five persons on whom we can rely," he proceeded: "Since 
we found it so easy to get rid of Latour, I am sure we shall 
deal much more easily with the others. I demand only the 
heads, and the rest of my list as hostages. In this I have 
my own plan, and I'll communicate it by bits. But, gentle- 
men ! no lukewarmness ! — no half-measures ! If we don't 
hang them, they will certainly hang us. On the 6tk Octo- 
ber, already I remarked something like lukewarmness, dis- 
obedience, and cowardice !" 

On the following day, Tausenau and Chaisees talked to the 
witness in private. Tausenau told him that they must needs 
outstrip the plans of the " reaction ;" and that he proposed 
to protect the town by means of four companies of labourers, 
whick would bear the name of the " democratic corps." Of 
this corps witness was offered the command, and Chaisees 
was to act as purser. He also gave witness a list of names, 
adding, that the persons whose names had been marked with 
a cross, ougkt to be banged ; and ke promised to furnisk 
eigkt trusty men for tke purpose of executing tke said per- 
* On the 8th October. 



456 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

sons. Several of the persons so doomed were named by 
witness at the trial. On this occasion, Tausenau confessed 
that he had caused Latour to be hanged, to intimidate the 
" reaction" and the troops, but that the affair had fallen short 
of his expectations, since it had been his original intention 
to " strike them all at one blow." 

On the 12th October, the same witness had a conversation 
with Kudlich, whom he met at Messenhanser's head- quarters. 
Kudlich regretted that Tausenau and Chaisees had induced 
him to assist them in the murder of Latour. 

On another occasion, witness was told by Kudlich and 
Fuster that Tausenau had got them into a scrape by the 
murder. Kudlich said : " I am losing my popularity ;" and 
Fuster remarked, "the few have spoiled the whole affair." 
Goldmark, who joined them, agreed with Kudlich, who pro- 
tested, those three persons ought to have been given up to 
the people, and if not those three, then none at all. By 
these words he alluded to Latour, Mr. Bach, and the Arch- 
duchess Sophia. 

The above is a summary of the evidence respecting Tau- 
senau and his set, as deposed before the court-martial. But 
the Vienna Criminal Court, too, has amassed a bulk of evi- 
dence, which, in itself, would be enough to inculpate Tause- 
nau of treason, and active co-operation to the murder of the 
Secretary at War. 

Numerous witnesses, whose evidence was taken by the 
Criminal Court, prove that Charles Tausenau, M.D., vice- 
president of the Association of the Friends of the People, 
and president of the Democratic Central Committee, an 
ambitious but profligate and dissolute person, entered into an 
intimate alliance with the Hungarian democrats; and that 
the assassination of Count Latour resulted from this alliance. 
His connection with the Hungarians is especially shown by 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR, 457 

the event of the torch serenade, which the "Vienna democrats, 
on the 19th September, brought to the Hungarian deputa- 
tion, at the Frankfort Hotel, and by the events of the supper, 
which followed this demonstration, the expenses of which 
were paid by the Hungarian deputy Balogh, with a sum of 
forty-three florins. 

Tausenau, who took the chair at the supper, used the most 
revolting expressions in his attempts to demonstrate the 
necessity of an annihilation of the dynasty of the Camarilla, 
and especially of the ministers, whom he designated as traitors 
and rascals. So disgusting was his language, that several of 
the persons present left the room. He also cast the most 
\iolent and filthy aspersions on the Pragmatic Sanction, 
which he mentioned as a " wretched piece of musty parch- 
ment." He said, that the aspirations of Hungary ought to be 
supported, its power increased, while Austria ought to be 
humbled, and that the democrats would do their part to- 
wards that object. All obstacles ought to be ruthlessly 
removed, and all existing institutions ought to be over- 
thrown. 

Chaisees, Balogh, and Yioland, spoke in the same spirit. 
Violand promised that the Left of the Frankfort Parliament 
would support Tausenau's views, and that he corresponded 
with Frankfort. 

Nor ought it to be forgotten, that Count L. Batthyany, 
the Hungarian premier, who lived in the same hotel, quitted 
Vienna in the night of the 5th October; that Tausenau, 
Gritzner, and Hafner, frequently conversed with him, and 
with the Hungarian deputy Tzirmay; and that the Hunga- 
rians, previous to their departure, exchanged their black 
feathers for purple cockades. 

But far more important in the preparations of the murder, 
are Tausenau's speeches at the democratic meetings in the 



458 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

Odeon Hall, on the 10th, 24th, and 30th September. There, 
in the presence of from 4,000 to 10,000 persons, he publicly, 
unblushingiy, and with a kind of frenzy, called for the death 
of the wretched Secretary at War. Several witnesses deposed 
that they shuddered on hearing him, and that they left the 
place in horror and disgust, while others believed that the 
speaker was mad. One of them felt it his duty to warn 
Count Latour, and this warning caused an inquiry against 
Tausenau, the course of which was interrupted by the events 
of the 6th October. 

At the Odeon meeting, on the 24th September, Dr. Schutte 
inculcated the necessity of imposing taxes upon the rich and 
wealthy, and Jellinek advocated a republic. Willner, alias 
the King of the Labourers, praised the glorious deeds of the 
Peasant War, and addressing the peasants then and there 
assembled, he desired that they should imitate so bright an 
example for liberty's sake, while Chaisee's denouncing the 
aristocracy and the " reaction," sought to induce the labourers 
to make a revolution. 

After these preliminaries, Tausenau ascended the tribune. 
He accused the Government of oppressing freedom in Hun- 
gary ; he alluded to the recent murder of Lichnowsky and 
Anerswald, at Frankfort; and he mentioned these atroci- 
ties with a certain complacency; and, turning to the affairs 
of Austria, he pointed out that there, too, the popular cause 
was opposed by Latour, Bach, Jellacic, Windischgratz, and 
Eadetzky; and that these obstacles ought to be removed at 
any price. He exhorted the people to prepare for the con- 
test, and he concluded by exclaiming, " These dogs must all be 
hanged ! " alluding especially to Latour, whom, foaming with 
rage, he called an aristocrat, and whom he addressed, as though 
present, with the most disgusting invectives. The National 
Guards, students, peasants, and labourers, who listened to 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 459 

this speech, drowned its conclusion in deafening cheers, and 
the cry, " Down with Latour ! * 

These facts are confirmed by the culprit Johi, who has 
gince been sentenced. 

The meeting of the 30th September consisted of from 
3,000 to 4,000 National Guards and students. Tausenau 
introduced himself to them in his quality of president of the 
Central Democratic Association, and he said that he would 
answer to the expectations of his electors. Alluding next to 
the last sitting of the Diet, and to Mr. Borrosch's motion 
on the intercepted correspondence between the Ban and 
Latour, whom he vilely abused, he stated that the Secretary 
at War had allowed the Ban 280,000 florins for the keep of 
the Croatian troops, and, slapping his pockets, he exclaimed, 
with unparalleled effrontery, u This, gentlemen, is our own 
money ; it is money from our own purse ! " He next called 
Latour a traitor to the people and to freedom, and shouted 
most violently, " Damn this aristocrat ! Down with this 
aristocrat !" In the course of his speech he repeated these 
exclamations, and the cry was taken up by the infatuated 
mob. 

The very women were entreated by Tausenau to assist in 
the construction of barricades. 

A witness to whom all credit is due, and who attended 
four Odeon meetings, deposes that he cannot recollect all the 
speeches of Tausenau, although he remembers that they were 
all calculated to excite animosity against Latour. Neverthe- 
less, he protests, that he can never forget the manner in 
which this agitator hissed like a hyaena (such is the witness's 
expression) the following words: "You will see, one fine 
morning, not only Latour will be dead, but other distin- 
guished ladies and gentlemen will be dead — stark dead — and 
stone dead ! " And, by his oratory tricks, he induced the 



460 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

whole meeting of 10,000 persons to break out into a horrible 
and far-sounding death- whoop against Latour. 

When the intercepted letters of the Secretary at War were 
published in the Radical papers, Tausenau read these letters 
to the Odeon meeting, and by these means he produced an 
unfavourable impression against the count. 

In the first half of October, Tausenau said, in a conversa- 
tion with a female witness, that it was he who had caused the 
events of the 6th, and on witness lamenting the death of 

Count Latour, Tausenau protested that the b r was not 

worthy of compassion; he had justly been hanged, and if the 
people's cause conquered, the fellow would not be the last 
whom they hanged. 

Another witness states that at noon on the 6th October 
he saw a large crowd at the guard-house near the War 
Office. He also saw that a member of the Legion seized the 
officer on duty, saying : " Are you for the people ? speak 
out, and sheath your sword." The officer was then sur- 
rounded and protected by several bystanders, and another 
member of the Legion called out : " Now, do be reasonable, 
Tausenau I" 

It appears from the evidence of other persons that, in the 
latter half of October, Tausenau left Yienna, and that he 
had a large sum of money in his possession ; that at Pres- 
burg he consulted with Kossuth and Csany ; that he sent an 
engineer to Yienna with a message to Messenhauser ; and 
that after the battle of Schwechat, he accompanied Kossuth 
to Pesth. At Pesth he lived in the same house with 
.L. Hank, and spent large sums of money. Unterschild 
sent him for letters from Yienna ; Kossuth gave him his 
fullest confidence, and called frequently to see him ; and he 
was very intimate with Pulszky, Balogh, and Madaran. He 
went to all the clubs, made inflammatory speeches, and by 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 461 

Pulszky's mediation he kept up a correspondence with 
M. Engelmann, the president of the Democratic Association 
at Breslau. After the battle of Raab he received 1,000 
florins from Pulszky, and with this sum he proceeded to 
Breslau, for the purpose of revolutionizing that city. Rea- 
sons, however, which have not transpired, induced him to 
leave Breslau on the 12th March, 1849. He went to Paris. 

In one of his speeches, held at Pesth, he said : " They 
accuse us of having caused the death of Latour. I swear, by 
the ashes of my murdered brethren, that such an idea never 
entered my head. The hatred of the people pursued him, 
for they knew him ; and to make hirn known to the people, 
this, I protest, was our most sacred duty." 

It need scarcely be mentioned that the evidence against 
the originators of the murder was obtained gradually, and in 
the course of a lengthened inquiry. This circumstance 
explains why certain members of the Diet were enabled to 
make their escape at a time when the authorities were not, 
in law, justified in procuring their arrest. 



STJMMAKY. 

"Whoever considers the results of this statement, which 
we have compiled from official sources, must feel convinced 
that the murder of the Secretary at "War, Count Latour, was 
well considered, planned, and prepared, and that the crime 
was perpetrated for the purpose of removing a man from his 
sphere of action, whose intelligence, intrepidity, and consti- 
tutionalism, secured him the respect of his sovereign, the 
confidence of the army, and the affection of all loyal citizens, 
and who, by his manly defence of his political principles, had 



4G2 INVESTIGATION INTO THE 

become odious to an ill-favoured and ill-matched popular 
representation. 

At a time when the secret associations of Europe, relying 
on their own strength, came forth from the night of mys- 
tery, to work by the most disgraceful means the overthrow 
of all, and even of the constitutional governments of Europe, 
to construct on the ruins of states, their chimeras of a 
German, Gallic, or Slavonic republic ; at a time when these 
men came forward to captivate the rude and unintellectual 
masses of the people, by inflaming their desire for the pro- 
perty of the rich, by estranging them from the blessings of 
religion, and by annihilating the most sacred bonds of 
nature : at such a time it was natural that the anarchists, 
acting upon their old principle, that the means are sanctified 
by the end, sought to remove every man whose energy and 
principles they had reason to fear, thereby terrorizing the 
government and their adherents. 

The forcible separation of Hungary and Upper Italy from 
Austria was resolved upon by the revolutionary committee, 
for the purpose of isolating the latter country, and of thus 
consigning it to the torrent of the republican movement. 
These were the tendencies which Count Latour unmasked and 
opposed. His patriotism was his crime, and the members of 
the opposition of the Austrian Diet, and the venal advocates 
of the Magyar insurrection, gave him up to an infatuated 
people, whom they assured that he was a traitor to their 
dearest interests. 

The friends of this victim of the party of destruction 
remember that when Count Lamberg left Vienna to proceed 
pn his mission for the pacification of Hungary, Count Latour 
addressed Mm with a foreboding of the fate which was in store 
for him, saying : u It is not likely that we shall meet again, but 
duty and honour command us to resign ourselves to our fate." 



MURDER OF COUNT LATOUR. 463 

The events at Pesth and Vienna show the truth of this 
prediction. Already had the bloodthirsty hydra of Radi- 
calism struck the firstborn of its hatred at Frankfort as well 
as at Rome. 

It is beyond our present task to prove, from a mass of 
official documents, the progressive connection of these horrors 
of our own days with various earlier attempts against the 
lives of legal servants of the state, and even of crowned 
heads. Still, it is worthy of remark, that all the attempts to 
assassinate the last constitutional king of France were fos- 
tered in the lap of these secret societies to which we have 
alluded, and that the final overthrow of that prince became 
the signal for a well-organized insurrection of all the Radical 
associations of Europe, and that it was meant to be, so to 
say, the blast from the trumpet of death for all the champions 
of social order. 

It may indeed appear miraculous that the leaders of the 
propaganda succeeded in imposing upon the good sense and 
the natural discernment of the loyal citizens of Vienna, whose 
patriotism, in the years 1800, 1805, and 1,809, is upon 
record. And certain it is, that they and their descendants 
will shudder to think that Ferdinand, the benevolent, the 
generous donor of the form of government which his sub- 
jects desired, has twice been compelled to fly from their 
city, and that his energetic Minister of War, who loved 
progress, but who opposed the dissolution of Austria, was 
most disgracefully and cruelly murdered, amidst the armed 
and once loyal citizens of the Austrian capital. 



INDEX. 



AdkijLNOple, treaty of, lix. 

Albert, Archduke, xv. 

,, ,, (son of Archduke 

Charles), lxviii, 133, 144 

Alexander, emperor of Russia, xxxiv, 
xxxviii, lviii. 

Alps, campaign of the, xxix. 

Alvinzi, General, xxiii. 

Appony, Count, 75, 77. 

Arad, last acts of the Hungarian govern- 
ment at, cxxiii ; surrender of the fort- 
ress, cxxiv ; executions at, cxxvi. 

Areola, battle of, xxiii. 

Arsenal, civic, of Vienna plundered, xcii. 

Aspern, battle of, xliii. 

Auersperg, Count, xcii, xciv. 

Auge^eau, Marshal, xxxvii, lii. 

Aulic Council, faults of the, xxviii, xxx, 
xxxvi, xxxvii, xlii. 

Austerlitz, battle of, xxxix. 

Austrian government machinery, 19. 

,, system of government, Iv, 38-57 ; 
portrayed by ISlebuhr,. lvii ; regarded 
with aversion by the middle and privi- 
leged classes, 60. 

Bach, Dr. minister of justice, 243 «, 260, 
261. 

Bagration, Eussian general, xxxix. 

Balloons, attempt to bombard Venice by 
means of, lxxxviii. 

Bankruptcy, Austrian state in 1811,xlvii. 

Basle, treaty of, xix. 

Batthyany, Count Louis, prime minister 
of Hungary, lxx, lxxii, 274, 276 ; exe- 
cuted, cvii. 

„ Count Casimir, cxxiv. 

Baumgartner, minister of public works, 
217, 260. 

Bavaria sides with France, xxv; terri- 
tories ceded to her by Austria, xxxix, 
xIf. 

Beaulieu, General, xxii. 

Bellegarde, General, xxviii. 

Bern, General, xevi, xcix, cxi, cxiv, cxv. 

Bernarlotte, Marshal, afterwards king of 
Sweden, xxiv, xxvii, xxxv, xlix. 

Black Forest, the, xxiv, xxxvi. 

Blucher, Marshal, xlix-liv. 

Blum, Robert, executed, xcix. 

Bohemia, revolution in, lxix ; estates of, 
80 ; provisional government of, 243. 



Bologna, lx. 

Bombardment of Prague, kix. 

,, of Vienna, xc-xcix. 

,, of Venice, Ixxvii-cz. 

Bonaparte, General, hi* Italian campaign 
of 1796, xxii, xxiv; of 1800, xxxi ; de- 
clared emperor, xxxv. See Napoleon. 

Branyiszko Pass, the, stormed by Guyon's 
Hungarians, cix. 

Brescia, massacre of, Ixxxvi. 

Brunswick, duke of, xiv, xvii. 

Bubna, General, li, lviii. 

Buda, siege and storm of, cxix, 

Camarxlla, the, 173. 

Campo Formio, peace of, xxv. 

Canning, Sir Stratford, cxxvi. 

Carpathians, Gorgei's retreat over the, 
cviii, exxii. 

Catherine, empress of Russia, xix. 

Catholicism in Austria, 33, 41. 

Charles Albert, king of Sardinia, invades 
Lombardy, lxxxii ; is defeated, and 
capitulates at Milan, Ixxxiv ; again de- 
clares war, is defeated at Novara, and 
abdicates, lxxxvi. 

Charles, Archduke, xvii, xviii ; campaign 
of the Rhine in 1798, xxiii; in 1799, 
xxviii 5 superseded in his command, 
xxxi ; minister of war, xli ; campaign 
of 1809, xlii-xlv ; offered the sove- 
reignty of the Low Countries, 182. 

Charter, Austrian, of March, 1849, cxxvi. 

Chatillon, conference of, lii. 

Chaumont, treaty of, lv. 

Chotek, Count, governor of Bohemia, 81. 

Cisalpine Republic, xxiii. 

Clairfait, General, xviii, xxi. 

Coalition against France — first, xv; se- 
cond, xxviii; third, xxxv. 

Coburg, Prince, xvi, xviii. 

Conde and Valenciennes seized by Aus- 
tria, xvi. 

Confederation, German, lv, lvi. 
,, of the Rhine, xl. 

Cracow, erected into a republic, lxii ; 
annexed to Austria, lxiii. 

Croatia, revolt of, against the Hungarian 
government, lxxi; savage cruelties of 
the Croats, lxxii. 

Custine, General, xvii. 

Czoric, General, cviii, cxiv. 



2 H 



466 



INDEX. 



Damjanic, Hungarian colonel, cix, cxii, 
cxiii. 

Davidovich, General, xxiii. 

Debreczin, Hungarian government re- 
moved to, cvi. 

Dembinski, General, Hungarian com- 
mander-in-chief, cxi ; superseded, cxii. 

Doblhoff, Baron, minister of trade and 
commerce, xciii, 217, 239, 253, 259, 
260. 

Dumourier, General, xiv-xvi. 

El chin gen - , battle of, xxxvi. 

England allied with Austria against 

France, see Coalition; in the Syrian 

expedition, lxii. 
Esslingen, battle of Aspern and, xliii. 
Esterhazy, Prince, 276. 
Eugene Beauharnois, Prince, xliii, xliv. 

Faster, demagogue of Prague, 184, 185. 

Ferdinand I., emperor of Austria, lxi, 
18 ; takes measures for establishing a 
constitution, lxviii ; escapes to Inn- 
spruck, lxviii, 230 ; appoints his uncle 
John as his representative in Vienna, 
lxviii, 253 ; ratifies a new constitution 
for Hungary, lxx ; palters with his 
Hungarian subjects, lxxi, lxxii, lxxiii, 
cxi; returns to Schonbrunn, xci; retires 
to Olmutz, xciii ; assumes an uncom- 
promising attitude, xcv ; abdicates, ci. 

Ferdinand, Archduke, xxxvi, xliv. 

Ferrara, Austrian occupation of, lxv, 63. 

Feuchtersleban, Baron, 260, 261. 

Ficquelmont, Count, lxxxiii, 169, 170, 
208 n, 2L2. 

Flanders, invaded by the French in 1792, 
xiii ; wrested from Austria, xviii ; 
ceded, xxv. 

France, first war with the republic of, 
xiii ; incipient dismemberment of, xvi ; 
second war with the republic of, xxvii ; 
first war with the empire of, xxxv ; 
second, xli ; third, xlviii. 

Francis Charles, Archduke, father of 
the Emperor Francis Joseph, ci, 207. 

Francis I., emperor of Germany, xiii, 
xiv, xviii ; assumes the title of emperor 
of Austria, xxxv ; abdicates the impe- 
rial crown of Germany, xl ; his death, 
lx; characteristic traits, lxi, 11-13; 
general discontent in the latter part of 
his reign, 10. 

Francis Joseph, Archduke, afterwards 
emperor, 149, 150, 203, 208 ; his acces- 
sion and inaugural proclamation, ci. 

Froschweiler, battle of, xviii. 

Gilicia, acquired by Austria, xx ; in- 
surrection of, lxii, 61. 

Godoilo, battle of, cxiii. 

Gorgei, Hungarian general, xcvii ; com- 
mander of the army of the Danube, 
cv ; his proclamation at Waitzen, cviii ; 
retreats over the Carpathians, ib. ' } de- 



feats the Austrians in five successive 
battles and drives tbem over the fron- 
tier, cxiii-cxv ; neglects to improve 
this opportunity, cxviii ; his hatred of 
Kossuth, cxx ; defends Komorn, cxxi ; 
his second retreat over the Carpathians, 
cxxii ; his equivocal conduct, ib. ; ob- 
tains the dictatorship and makes an 
unconditional surrender, cxxiv. 

Gotz, General, cxiv; killed, ib. 

Guyon, Count, storms the Branyiszko 
Pass, cviii. 

Hammeesteik, General, cviii. 

Hartig, Count, 150, 212 n. 

Haspinger, Tyrolese leader, xliv, xlvi. 

Haugwitz, Prussian minister, xxxviii. 

Haynau, General, lxxxvi, Ixxxvii, cxix, 
cxx. 

Heller, General, xiii, xlix. 

Hoche, General, xvii, xxiv. 

Hofer, Tyrolese leader, xliv; his death, 
xlvi. 

Hohenlinden, battle of, xxxii. 

Holy Allianee, Iv, 16. 

Hornbostel, Austrian minister, xciii, 260, 
261, 262 n. 

Hotze, General, xxviii, xxx. 

Houchard, General, xvii. 

Hovos, Count, 144, 221. 

Hrabowski, General, 276, 279. 

Hungary, the diet illegally suspended for 
fourteen years, opened in 1825, 14; 
constitution of 1848, lxx, 179, 268 ; bad 
faith of the Austrian government, lxxi, 
lxxii, xcv ; atrocities of the civil war, 
lxxiii ; Lamberg oppointed civil and 
military governor, ib. ; first invasion 
under Jellachich, xci ; rights of Hun- 
gary in relation to the crown, cii-civ ; 
second invasion, civ ; paper money, 
cv ; declaration of independence, cxvi; 
third invasion, cxix. 

Jellachich, ban of Croatia, lxxi-lxxiii, 
xci, xciv, civ, cv. 

Jemappes, battle of, xv. 

John, Archduke, xxxi, xxxvii, xliii, lxviii, 
253, 256, 258, 277. 

Josika, Baron, court-chancellor of Tran- 
sylvania, 78, 

Jourdan, General, xviii, xxii, xxiii, xxviii. 

KAiSEESLAUTEEisr, battle of, xvii, xviii. 

Kapolna, battle of, cxi. 

Klapka, General, his enumeration of the 
Hungarian forces, civ ; defeats Schliek, 
ex ; defeats Jellachich, cxiii ; his de- 
fence of Komorn, cxxiv. 

Kolowrath, Count, Austrian minister of 
the interior, 50, 82, 169, 207. 

Komorn, capitulation of, exxv. 

Korsakoff, General, xxx. 

Kossuth, Louis, Hungarian minister of 
finance, lxx, lxxiii, xcvii ; president of 
the Committee of Defence, cv, cvi, cxi, 



INDEX. 



467 



cxvi; governor of Hungary, cxvii, 
cxix, cxx. 

Kraus, Austrian minister, xciii, 171, 261. 

Kray, Marshal, xviii, xxix, xxxi. 

Kremsier, diet opened at, xcix; dis- 
solved, cxxvi. 

E/iibek, Baron, Austrian minister, 100, 
102, 169, 171, 207. 

Kutusoff, General, xxxviii, xxxix. 

Laibach, congress of, lviii. 

Lamberg, Count, 289 ; murdered, lxxiii. 

Latour, General, xxiii, xxiv. 

„ Count, minister of war, lxxii, 212, 

261 ; murdered, cxii ; investigation 

respecting hi3 murder, 335. 
Lefebvre, Marshal, xhv, xlvi. 
Lehrbach, Austrian minister, xxviii. 
Ligny, battle of, liii. 
Loano, battle of, xxi. 
Lodi, battle of, ib. 
Lombardy under the rule of Austria, 

lxxiii, 62 ; military outrages in, lxxvi. 
Louis, Archduke, 168, 169, 173, 207. 
Lower Austria, Estates of, 93, 159. 

,, Trades Union of, 108. 

Luneville, peace of, xxxii. 

Mack, surrender of General, xxxvi. 

Magnano, battle of, xxix. 

Manin, Daniele, president of the repub- 
lic of Venice, lxxv, lxxxi, lxxxvii. 

Mannheim, xxi, xxx. 

Mantua, taken by Bonaparte, xxiii ; in- 
vested by Charles Albert, lxxxiii. 

Marengo, battle of, xxxi. 

Maria Louisa, Archduchess, married to 
Napoleon, xlvi ; gives birth to a son, 
xlvii ; created duchess of Parma, liv. 

Marinovich, murder of Colonel, lxxx. 

Martinez, president of the Vienna Com- 
mittee of Safety, 174. 

Massena, Marshal, xxviii, xxxi. 

Melas, General, xxx, xxxi. 

Messenhauser, revolutionary command- 
ant of Vienna, xcvi ; shot, xcix. 

Metternich, Prince, Austrian prime min- 
ister, xlvi, xlviii, xlix, lviii ; his cle- 
mency, lxi ; resigns office, lxviii, 141 ; 
erroneous estimate of his influence 
over Francis I., 13 ; his consciousness 
of the defects of the Austrian state 
machinery, 37; his anticipations of 
the revolution, 124. " The Metternich 
system," see Austrian system of go- 
vernment. 

Milan, expulsion of the Austrians from, 
lxxvii. 

Minto, Lord, Italian mission of, lxvi. 

Mollendorf, General, xviii. 

Montecuculi, Count, 129 », 159, 174. 

Moreau, General, xxii, xxiii ; his retreat 
through the Black Forest, xxiv ; de- 
feats Archduke John at Hohenlinden, 
xxxii. 

Morocco, war between Austria and, lix. 



Murat, Prince, afterwards king of Naples, 
xxxix ; shot, liv. 

Napoleon takes Vienna, in 1805, xxxix ; 

in 1809, xlii ; marries Maria Louisa, 

xlvi ; invades Russia, xlvii ; abdicates, 

liii ; dies in captivity, liv. 
Nagy Sarlo, battle of, cxv. 
New Szony, battle of, cxv. 
Niebuhr on the actual state of Europe, 

lvii. 
Novi, battle of, xxix. 

Palatine of Hungary, Archduke Ste- 
phen, lxx-lxxii, 76, 77, 156, 181. 

Palfy, Count, lxxix, lxxx. 

Palmerston, Lord, lxvi, lxxxiii. 

Paris, treaty of, liii. 

Parsdorf, armistice of, xxxi. 

Paskievitch, Prince, exx, cxxii. 

Paul I., emperor of Russia, xxviii. 

Perczel, Hungarian general, cv, cix. 

Pichegru, General, xvii, xviii. 

Pillersdorf, Baron, Austrian minister of 
the interior, lxviii, lxxxvii, 169-174, 200, 
210, 211, 213, 214, 255, 259, 260. 

Poland, partition of, xix-xxi. 

Police, Austrian, lvii, lxii, lxxviii, 9. 

Prague bombarded, lxix. 

Presburg, peace of, xxxix. 
j Prussia, in alliance with Austria against 
France in 1792-4, xiv ; her defection in 
1794, xix i aggrandized by favour of 
France and Russia, xxxiv ; assumes a 
neutral position, xxxv; prepares to 
abandon it, xxvii; chastised by France, 
takes her revenge, xlix-liv. 

Quasdanowich, General, xxii. 

Radetzki, Marshal, lxxvi ; his expulsion 
and retreat from Milan, lxxvii ; halts 
at Verona, lxxxii, 65 n ; drives Charles 
Albert out of Lombardy, lxxxiv; de- 
feats him again at Novara, lxxxvi; 
summons Venice to surrender, lxxxvii ; 
grants it favourable terms, xc. 

Rainer, Archduke, lxxvi. 

Rastadt, convention of, xxv ; murder of 
French envoys at, xxvii. 

Reichenbach, treaty of, xlviii. 

Reuss, Prince, xlix. 

Rhine, confederation of the, xxxiv, xl, 
xli. 

Robot, the, abolished in Hungary, lxx ; 
in Bohemia, 184, 186. 

Russia, allied with Austria against France, 
xxviii, xxxv ; with France against Aus- 
tria, xli ; invaded by Napoleon, xlvii ; 
co-operates in his overthrow, xlix-liv ; 
her intervention in Hungary, cxiv, cxx. 

Schwaetzenbeeg, Prince, xxxii, xlvi, 
xlvii, xlix. 

„ Prince Felix, Austrian 

prime minister, xcix. 



■iiMHiairiHMMaiflMfei 



468 



INDEX. 



91 



Schwarzer, Austrian minister, 260, 261. 

Schlick, General, civ, ex. 

Schwechat, battle of, xcvi. 

Somraa Campagna, battle of, lxxxiv. 

Sommaruga, Baron, Austrian minister, 
171, 260. 

Soult, Marshal, xxxvi. 

Spechbacher, Tyrolese leader, xliv, xlvi. 

Stadion, Count Rudolph, 115. 

„ Count Francis, governor of Ga- 
licia, 144, 171, 255 ; imperial minister, 
xcix. 

Stift, Baron, 261, 262. 

Suwarroff, Marshal, xx, xxviii-xxx. 

Switzerland, subdued by the French, 
xxvii ; campaign of, in 1799, xxviii, xxx. 

Syria, affairs of, in 1839, lxi ; joiDt expe- 
dition of England and Austria, lxii. 

Szecheny, Count, Hungarian minister, 
276. 

Szemere, Hungarian minister, exi, exxiv. 

Taaee, Count, Austrian minister, 169, 

207. 
Teleki, Count, 189. 
Temesvar, battle of, exxiii. 
Thugut, Austrian prime minister, xxviii. 
Thun, Count Leo, lxix, exxxii, 241, 243. 
Tournay, battle of, xviii. 
Transylvania, Estates of, union of, with 

Hungary, lxx, 14, 16 ; Bern's campaign 

in, cxiv. 
Troppau, congress of, lviii. 
Tyrol, xxv, xxvii, xxxix, xlii, xliv, xlv, 

xlvi. 

Ulm, surrender of, xxxvi. 

Valmy, battle of, xiv. 
Verona, lxxxii, lxxxiii. 

„ congress of, lviii, lix. 
Venice, annexed to Austria, xxv ; ceded, 



xl ; restored to her, liv ; the Austrians 
expelled from, Ixxix ; siege and sur- 
render of, lxxvii-xc. 

Vetter, General, Hungarian commander- 
in-chief, cxii. 

Vienna taken by Napoleon, in 1805, 
xxxix ; in 1809, xlii ; its ramparts 
blown up, xlv; revolution of 181S, 
lxxiii, 123-162 ; Diet opened in, xc ; 
anarchy, revolt, and bombardment, 
xc-xcix. 

Vienna, peace of, xlv. 

„ first congress of, liii. 
,, second congress of, lviii. 

Vilagos, surrender of, exxiv. 

Wageam, battle of, xliv. 

Waterloo, battle of, liii. 

Wattigny, battle of, xvii. 

Welden, General, lxxxii, cxv. 

Wenzelbad, Czech committee of the, 184, 
202, 241. 

Wernek, General, xviii. 

Wessenberg, Baron, 239, 253, 259, 261, 
266. 

Wessenberg, lines of, stormed, xvii. 

Windischgratz, Prince, bombards Prague, 
lxix; bombards Vienna, xcvi ; invades 
Hungary, cix ; is defeated and re- 
called, cxiii. 

Wohlgemuth, General, cxv. 

Worth, battle of, xviii. 

Wurmser, General Count, Austrian com- 
mander on the Upper Rhine, xvi, xvii, 
xxi ; in Italy, xxii, xxiii, xxviii. 

York, duke of, xvi, xxx. 
York, General, xlvii. 

Zaniwi, General, 171, 212. 
Zichy, Count, lxxx. 
Znaym, armistice of, xlv, 



THE END. 



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